ed by the English, and, on this
occasion, both by land and sea; but the inhabitants made a gallant and
an effectual resistance.

Their opposition, though unavailing, was not at all less spirited in the
following reign, when they were compelled, in common with the rest of
France, to acknowledge the power of the fifth Henry. But they again
disengaged themselves from the English crown in 1431, after having
remained in subjugation to it for eleven years; and the subsequent
siege, conducted by Talbot himself in person, in 1442, only added to
their military character. During this siege, which was of great length,
the English general erected the formidable fortress, known by the name
of the Bastille, in the suburb of Pollet. The following year saw the
French become in their turn the assailants: Louis II. then dauphin,
joined the troops of the Comte de Dunois in Dieppe, and the Bastille
fell, after a most murderous attack. It was afterwards levelled with the
ground in 1689, though, at a period of one hundred and twenty years
after it was originally taken and dismantled, it had again been made a
place of strength by the Huguenots, and was still farther fortified
under Henry IV. The pious dauphin, who ascribed the capture of this
almost impregnable castle to the especial grace of the Virgin Mary,
would not quit Dieppe without leaving behind him an equally signal mark
of gratitude on his part. He accordingly repaired in person to the
church of St. James, there to place the town under her especial
protection; and, not content with this, he instituted the Guild of the
Assumption, charging the members annually to commemorate the day of
their deliverance by a solemn festival.[68]

After this time, Dieppe appears to have been exposed to no farther
calamities from warfare, except what it suffered, in common with a great
part of France, during the religious troubles, and also excepting the
bombardment by the English fleet in 1694. From the earliest rise of
Calvinism in France, the inhabitants of Dieppe had distinguished
themselves in favor of the reformation; and they were already prepared
to go to the utmost lengths in its support, when John Knox, one of the
most devoted apostles of the new faith, landed there in 1560, on his way
from Scotland to Geneva. The presence of such a man produced the effect
which might naturally be expected, of kindling the spark into a flame;
and Dieppe continued for two years in open rebellion to the court.