' Thus it has been described
again and again; suffice it for us to mention a few details of its
construction. It is said that the abbey of St. Ouen was orginally built
in 533, in the reign of Clothaire I., and then dedicated to St. Peter.
Through various changes of construction and destruction, it holds a
prominent part in the history of the time of the Conqueror and the Dukes
of Normandy; and it was not for a thousand years after its foundation
that the present building was completed. 'During the troubles of the
times of the Huguenots in the sixteenth century, it suffered greatly,
especially in 1562, when the fanatics lighted bonfires inside, and burnt
the organ, stalls, pulpit, and vestments.' Again at the end of the
eighteenth century, 'the building was exposed to the fury of the
Revolutionists, when it was used as a manufactory of arms; a forge being
erected within it and the painted windows so blackened as to become
indecipherable; and later still, 'in the time of Napoleon I., a project
was laid before him, by the municipality of Rouen, for destroying the
church altogether!'
Perhaps there is no monument that we could point to in Europe which has
a more eventful history, or which, after a lapse of thirteen hundred
years, presents to the spectator, in the year 1869, a grander spectacle.
If we walk in the public gardens that surround it, and see its towers,
from different points, through the trees, or, better still, ascend one
of the towers and look down on its pinnacles, we shall never lose the
memory of St.
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