re consumed by fire," p.171. Huet observes that a "Dom
Jean de Baillehache and Dom Matthieu de la Dangie," religious of St.
Stephen's, took care of the monument of the Conqueror in the year
1642, and replaced it in the state in which it appeared in Huet's
time." _Origines de Caen_; p.248. The revolution was still more
terrible than the Calvinistic fury;--for no traces of the monument are
now to be seen.

[110] The west window is almost totally obscured by a most gigantic organ
built close to it, and allowed to be the finest in all France. This
organ is so big, as to require eleven large bellows, &c. _Ducarel_,
p.57. He then goes on to observe, that "amongst the plate preserved in
the treasury of this church, is a curious SILVER SALVER, about ten
inches in diameter, gilt, and inlaid with antique medals. Tradition
assures us, that it was on this salver, that king William the
conqueror placed the foundation charter of the abbey when he presented
it, at the high altar, on the dedication of the church. The edges of
this salver, which stands on a foot stalk of the same metal, are a
little turned up, and carved. In the centre is inlaid a Greek medal;
on the obverse whereof is this legend, [Greek: Ausander Aukonos] but
it being fixed in its socket, the reverse is not visible. The other
medals, forty in number, are set round the rim, in holes punched quite
through; so that the edges of the holes serve as frames for the
medals. These medals are Roman, and in the highest preservation."

[111] Yet Bourgueville's description of the group, as it appeared in his
time, trips up the heels of his own conjecture. He says that there
were, besides the two figures above mentioned, "vn autre homme et
femme a genoux, comme s'ils demandoient raison de la mort de leur
enfant, qui est vne antiquite de grand remarque dont je ne puis donner
autre certitude de l'histoire." _Antiquitez de Caen_; p.39. Now,
it is this additional portion of the group (at present no longer in
existence) which should seem to confirm the conjecture of my friend
Mr. Douce--that it is a representation of the received story, in the
middle ages, of the Emperor Trajan being met by a widow who demanded
justice against the murderer of her son. The Emperor, who had just
mounted his horse to set out upon some hostile expedition, replied,
that "he woul