extinction is not greatly to be deplored; for it tended not to a
real independence, but to the substitution of a royal for an
ecclesiastical Pope. Louis XIV. was quite as great a spiritual tyrant as
any Hildebrand or Innocent, and his tyranny was, if anything, more
degrading to the soul. In fact, the Ultramontane French Church, resting
for support on Rome, may be regarded by the friends of liberty, with a
qualified complacency, as a check, though a miserable one, on the
absolute dominion of physical force embodied in the Emperor.

The Bayeux tapestry, representing the expedition of William the
Conqueror, is curious and valuable as an historical monument, though it
cannot be proved to be contemporary. As a work of art it is singularly
spiritless, and devoid of merit of any kind. One of the fancy figures on
the border reveals the indelicacy of the ladies (a queen, perhaps, and
her handmaidens) who wrought it in a way which would be startling to any
one who had taken the manners and morals of the age of chivalry on
trust.

The heat drove me from Caen before I had "done" all the antiquities and
curiosities prescribed by the guidebook. Migrating to Lisieux, I found
myself in such pleasant quarters that I was tempted to settle there for
some days. The town is almost an unbroken assemblage of the quaintest
and most picturesque old houses. There are whole streets without any
taint of modern architecture to disturb the perfect image of the past.
Two magnificent churches, one of them formerly a cathedral, rise over
the whole; and there is a very pretty public garden, with its terraces,
pastures, and green alleys. A public garden is the invariable appendage
of a city in France, as it ought to be everywhere. We do not do half
enough in England for the innocent amusement of the people.

At Lisieux we had a public _fete_. It is evidently a part of the
business of the _sous-prefets_ to get up these things as antidotes to
political aspiration. _Panem et circenses_ is the policy of the French,
as it was of the Roman Caesars. For two or three days beforehand, the
people were engaged in planting little fir-trees in the street before
their doors, and decorating them and the houses, with little tricolor
flags. Larger flags (of which this little quiet town produced a truly
formidable number) were hung out from all the houses. As the weather was
very dry, the population was at work keeping the fir-trees alive with
squirts. The _fete_ consi