or their festival:--

"Primae vos canimus gentis apostolos,
Per quos relligio tradita patribus;
Errorisque jugo libera Neustria
CHRISTO sub duce militat.

"Facti sponte suis finibus exules
Huc de Romuleis sedibus advolant;
Merces est operis, si nova consecrent
Vero pectora Numini.

"Qui se pro populis devovet hostiam
Mellonus tacita se nece conficit;
Mactatus celeri morte Nicasius
Christum sanguine praedicat."

Heretics as we are, we ought not to refrain from respecting the zeal
even of a saint of the Catholic calendar, when thus exerted. Besides
which, he has another claim upon our attention: our own island gave him
birth, and he appeared at Rome as the bearer of the annual tribute of
the Britons, at the very time when he was converted to Christianity,
whose light he had afterwards the glory of diffusing over Neustria. The
existence of these tombs and the antiquity of the crypt, recorded as it
is by history and confirmed by the style of its architecture, have given
currency to the tradition, which points it out as the only temple where
the primitive Christians of Neustria dared to assemble for the
performance of divine service. Many stone coffins have also been
discovered in the vicinity of the church. These sarcophagi seem to
confirm the general tradition: they are of the simplest form, and
apparently as ancient as the crypt; and they were so placed in the
ground that the heads of the corpses were turned to the east, a position
denoting that the dead received Christian burial.

[Illustration: Circular Tower, attached to the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen]

Another opportunity will be afforded me of speaking of the church of St.
Ouen; but, as a singular relic of Norman architecture, I must here
notice the round tower on the south side of the choir, probably part of
the original edifice, finished by the Abbot, William Balot, and
dedicated by the Archbishop Geoffroi, in 1126. It consists of two
stories, divided by a billetted moulding. Respecting its use it would
not now be easy to offer a probable conjecture: the history of the
abbey, indeed, mentions it under the title of _la Chambre des Clercs_,
and supposes that it was formerly a chapel[68]; but its shape and size
do not seem to confirm that opinion.

The chapel of the suppressed lazar-house of St. Julien, situated about
three miles from Rouen, on the opposite side of the Seine, is more
pe