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The wonderful "Hotel Bourgtheroulde," dating from the time of Francis the First, and bearing on its sculptured walls the story of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, in company with the strangely-contrasting "Allegories", from Petrarch's "Triumphs", is enough in itself to keep the mind engrossed with fanciful musings for an hour.
Fouché's police had not given up hopes of finding the fugitive. They looked for him in Paris, Rouen, Saint-Denis-du-Bosguérard, near Bourgthéroulde, where his mother possessed a small estate; they watched closest at Saint-Clair whither his wife and daughters had returned after the execution of Georges.
About the commencement of the XVIth century, the houses in the neighbourhood of the church of Saint-Eloi and the rue du Vieux-Palais, were erected; one of them still remains, it is the Hôtel da Bourgtheroulde, which I have already described. The old market was thus divided, into two unequal parts. The spot where the innocent Joan of Arc was burnt in 1431, retains the name of place de la Pucelle.
On arriving at the summit of the mountain, the tourist receives an impression like enchantment: the castle seems to have been conveyed there by fairies; and at the base the eye is charmed by the fine and picturesque forest of Bourgtheroulde: villages elegantly grouped, enrich with their beautiful fabrics each bank of the Seine which majestically traverses a luxurious landscape.
MM. Nodier, Taylor and de Cailleux have enriched their picturesque and romantic tour, with a collection of lithographic engravings representing the celebrated interview between Francis Ist and Henry VIIIth, that took place in 1520 in a field situated between Guines and Ardres in Picardy. Mr A. Le Prevost has also written learned memoirs on the hotel du Bourgtheroulde.
After Montfaucon came Dr Ducarel, who has only copied the learned benedictine. Dibdin, the British antiquarian, has also paid his tribute of admiration to the hotel du Bourgtheroulde, in his Bibliographical, antiquarian and picturesque tour through France. Cotman and Dawson Turner, his countrymen, have given a place to this edifice in their respective publications.
The forced surrender of a few strongholds, the long siege of seven weeks, long for those days, of Waleran of Meulan's castle, of Pont Audemer and its capture, and the occupation of Amaury of Montfort's city of Evreux, filled the remainder of the year 1123, and in March of 1124 the battle of Bourgtheroulde, in which Ralph, Earl of Chester, defeated Amaury and Waleran and captured a large number of prisoners, virtually ended the conflict.
How did Petrarch and the Field of the Cloth of Gold come together in the brain of the sculptor who long ago worked at these ancient bas- reliefs? One wonders, but the wonder is in vain, there is no explanation; and the "Bourgtheroulde" remains a pleasing and fantastic architectural mystery.
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