either case be far from their proper
name,) were in the early ages of Christianity tolerated in almost every
place. Mr. Douce has furnished us with some curious remarks upon them in
the eleventh volume of the _Archaeologia_, and Mr. Ellis in his new
edition of _Brand's Popular Antiquities_. I am indebted to the first of
these gentlemen for the knowledge that the inclosed etching, copied some
time ago from a drawing by Mr. Joseph Harding, is allusive to the
ceremony of the _feast of fools_, and does not represent a group of
morris-dancers, as I had erroneously supposed. Indeed, Mr. Douce
believes that many of the strange carvings on the _misereres_ in our
cathedrals have references to these practices. And yet, to the honor of
England, they never appear to have been equally common with us as in
France.--According to Du Cange[108], the confraternity of the Conards or
Cornards was confined to Rouen and Evreux. I have not been able to
ascertain when they were suppressed; but they certainly existed in the
time of Taillepied, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, about
fifty years previously to which they dropped their original name of
_Coqueluchers_. At this time too they had evidently degenerated from the
primary object of their institution, "ridendo castigare mores atque in
omne quod turpiter factum fuerat ridiculum immittere." Taillepied was
an eye-witness of their practices; and he prudently contents himself
with saying; "le fait est plus clair a le voir que je ne pourrois icy
l'escrire."

At a short distance from the palace is a small square, called the _Place
de la Pucelle_, a name which it has but recently acquired, in lieu of
the more familiar appellation of _le Marche aux Veaux_. The present
title records one of the most interesting events in the history of
Rouen, the execution of the unfortunate Joan of Arc, which is said to
have taken place on the very spot now covered by the monument that
commemorates her fate. Three different ones have in succession occupied
this place. The first was a cross, erected in 1454, only twenty-four
years after her death; for even at this early period, the King of France
had obtained from Pope Calixtus IIIrd, a bull directing the revision of
her sentence, and he had caused her innocence to be acknowledged. The
second was a fountain of delicate workmanship, consisting of three
tiers of columns placed one above the other, on a triangular plan, the
whole decorated with arabesques an