Oppresseurs, opprimés, colliers, faisceaux, blasons,
Tout dort. Du vieux château la taciturne enceinte
Expire. Par degrés j'ai vu sa gloire éteinte.
J'ai marché sur ses tours, erré dans ses fossés:
Tels qu'un songe bientôt ils vont être effacés."
And in truth, they are so effectually effaced, that not a single vestige of the walls and towers can now be discovered.
Bayeux is situated in the midst of a fertile country, particularly rich in pasturage. The Aure, which washes its walls, is a small and insignificant streamlet, and though the city is within five miles of the sea, yet the river is quite useless for the purposes of commerce, as not a vessel can float in it. The present population of the town consists of about ten thousand inhabitants, and these have little other employment than lace-making.--Bayeux wears the appearance of decay: most of the houses are ordinary; and, though some of them are built of stone, by far the greater part are only of wood and plaster. In the midst, however, of these, rises the noble cathedral; but this I shall reserve for the subject of my next letter, concluding the present with a few remarks upon that matchless relic, which,
"... des siècles respecté,
En peignant des héros honore la beauté."
The very curious piece of historical needle-work, now generally known by the name of the Bayeux tapestry, was first brought into public notice in the early part of the last century, by Father Montfaucon and M. Lancelot, both of whom, in their respective publications, the Monumens de la Monarchie Française[[86]], and a paper inserted in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions[[87]], have figured and described this celebrated specimen of ancient art. Montfaucon's plates were afterwards republished by Ducarel[[88]], with the addition of a short dissertation and explanation, by an able antiquary of our own country, Smart Lethieuilier.