ed to all the town dues; and, to leave no doubt of
her right, she was in the habit of sending some of her officers at
vespers time on the Friday, to affix her armorial bearings to every
entrance of the town. The same officers also attached their own boxes
for the receipt of customs to the gates, in lieu of those of the
farmer-general. Water alone could be brought in without payment of toll.
As long as the fair lasted, the abbess was likewise treated with
military honors; the commandant of the garrison, whatever his rank, was
bound to apply to her, in person, for the parole of the day. The Abbe De
la Rue, from whose work most of the historical facts concerning this
convent are extracted, states, that he has himself seen the Marechal de
Harcourt, while governor of Normandy, wait upon the abbess for the
purpose; and he is of opinion, that the custom existed from the very
foundation of the monastery.

It will not be matter of surprise, that an establishment, thus gifted
and distinguished, should have been tenanted by the children of those
who had contributed to the endowment. The names of the daughters and
nieces of the chief Norman barons, will be found in the catalogue of the
first nuns. Such, however, was at that period the state of society, that
even an abbey, so founded, endowed, and occupied, was doomed to afford a
remarkable instance of the capricious barbarity of the times. No sooner
was the death of the Conqueror known, than the very nobles, who, but a
few years previously, had been foremost as benefactors to the convent,
assumed the opposite character, and did every thing in their power to
despoil, and to destroy it. They had themselves subscribed the following
denunciation:--"Si quis vero horum omnium, quae praedictae S. Trinitatis
ecclesiae data ostensa sunt, temeraria praesumptione aliquando, (quod
absit) violator effectus, in sua impudenti obstinatione perstiterit:
Noverit ille se anathema factum a Domino, sancta ac beata fidelium
omnium communione privatum Divino judicio, perpetualiter esse
plectendum."--But no consideration, human or divine, could restrain
their rapacity: they pillaged the lands; seized the corn and cattle
belonging to the monastery; imprisoned some of the tenants and vassals,
and put others to the sword. These, and many other facts, most curiously
illustrative of the manners of the age, are to be found in the
collection of the charters of the abbey. They prove indisputably, (if
such a fact