njoyed privileges that
were more ancient still, which were confirmed in 1371, in 1660, and in
1715. The "cordonniers" were united in the confrerie of St. Crepin at
the Church of St. Laurent. The "savetiers" joined the confrerie of the
Holy Trinity at the Abbey of St. Amand. The Church of St. Croix des
Pelletiers still preserves the traditions of another confrerie, that
of the "Pelletiers-fourreurs," whose statutes dated from Henri
Beauclerc. By 1171 the "Marchands de l'eau" secured a still further
extension of their privileges through the French King Louis VII. They
were allowed to come up as far as Pecq to load their barges without
interference from the Parisian confrerie, whose commerce was limited
to the same point. Forty years afterwards the two confreries united to
make the best possible for each out of the commerce of the Seine; and
the effects of reciprocity became evident so soon, that even in 1180
the merchants of Rouen and of Paris had already come to an agreement
as to the transport of the salt from the mouth of the river which
formed so important a part of every Norman landowner's revenue.

This gradual increase in self-confidence and power in Rouen soon
proved of direct importance to the King of England in a somewhat
curious way. For when the King of France had roused one of the English
royal princes to revolt, and Henry Plantagenet himself was obliged to
come to Normandy to the rescue of his besieged capital, it was by the
ringing of the bell that hung in the town belfry that the city was
saved from a sudden attack by the French forces that must have proved
successful. This was the famous bell known as "Rouvel," which rings
the alarum henceforth at every crisis in the history of the town, and
its first public service to the municipality, which had hung it where
the Grosse Horloge stands, was richly rewarded by King Henry. He freed
the citizens of all duty on their goods on both sides of the Channel,
he freed them from taxation and from forced labour, he confirmed their
ancient privileges, and--most important of all--he gave them an
established court of law, composed of burgesses, and presided over by
a "Bailli."

When once the impulse had been given in the right direction, it is
astonishing to notice how fast were the developments of civic freedom
and of commerce which go henceforth hand-in-hand throughout the story
of the town. When the last sad years of Henry's perpetual struggle
with his sons were ove