slender basis of
tradition, yet raised with plausibility, connected with ingenuity, and
supported by learning, may find abundant gratification in the early
history of Falaise. The town, as stated in a manuscript gazetteer of
Normandy, written in the seventeenth century, was not only among the
most ancient in Gaul, but was founded by one of the grandsons of Noah.
According to another yet more grave authority, its antiquity soars still
higher, and mounts to the period of the deluge itself. It so far exceeds
that of the Roman empire, that, long before the building of the immortal
city, colonies were sent from Falaise into Italy, where they were known
by the Aborigines, under the names of _Falisci_, or _Falerii_. A third
writer, M. Langevin, author of the _Recherches Historiques sur Falaise_,
assures his readers that Falaise was, from time immemorial, a station
consecrated to religion; and, in a dissertation full of the most
recondite information relative to the worship of Belenus and Abrasax,
Isis and Fele, he so connects and intermingles the rites of those
deities with the place and its vicinity, that he can scarcely be said to
do it less honor than his predecessors.

To turn from historians of this sanguine complexion to those of a more
sober temperament, there will appear no reason for believing that the
town of Falaise had existence prior to the incursions of the Saxons, or
the establishment of the Normans, in Neustria. No mention of it whatever
is to be found previous to the latter of these times; and its very name,
obviously derived from the German word for a rock, _fels_, whence the
French subsequently borrowed their appellation for cliffs, _falaise_,
seems decisive as to the foundation of the town by some people of
Teutonic origin. It is at the same time altogether characteristic of its
situation.

That Falaise was built by the Saxons, may probably, with justice, be
inferred from the fact of its being casually mentioned during the reign
of Rollo, as one of the places through which he passed in the year 912,
while visiting the different parts of his duchy. The town cannot but
have been of importance in the time of his son, William Longue-Epee; as
that prince is stated to have received great assistance from the
inhabitants of Falaise, and the district of the Hiemois, when engaged in
a war with the people of Brittany. It is more than possible that the
fortifications were added, and the castle erected, by one or the