the river of France; but even their efforts would have been insufficient to have compelled towards its newly-born harbour the great stream of commerce, but for the fortuitous aid of circumstances. Havre owes its prosperity, as it did its origin, to the calamities of its neighbours. The destruction of Harfleur by the moving sands of the river called it into existence; the revolution, so prolific of ruin, was its nurse; and the trade which deserted the other ports of France came in full flow to the embouchure of the Seine. The construction of this city of harbours, called Le Havre (harbour), par excellence, was a Herculean task. A town built upon the site of the few fishermen's huts which once stood upon these solitary shores, would have been useless as a sea-port; and it was necessary, therefore, to wrest a territory from the sea itself for its foundation. Eleven years after, on the night of the 15th of January, 1525, when the inhabitants of the new city were asleep in their lofty houses, dreaming of further conquests, and smiling at the roar of that stormy ocean which was now their slave, a sound of terror awoke them. It was the roar of the sea, wasting its fury no longer against the stone walls of its masters, but riding in triumph over them, and sweeping away every obstacle to its progress. The whole town was at length covered by this inundation, known to the people of the district by the name of the Male Marée, a great proportion of the inhabitants drowned, and twenty-eight fishingvessels floated over the fields into the ditches of the Château de Greville. After recovering from their consternation, the survivors, with a spirit worthy even of the Dutch, set themselves to repair their walls, and drive back the great enemy into his prison-depths. In a very little time, Havre raised its head anew, crowned with the spoils of Neptune; when another inundation carried terror, and almost despair, into the hearts of its builders. This new inroad of the sea was called the Coup de Vent de Saint-Félix, and a procession was instituted in honour of the unlucky saint, which, no doubt, was effectual,—as a similar disaster, at least to any considerable extent, never again occurred. Scarcely a score of years after the first inundation, however, a fleet issued from this port, so considerable as to awe the English into peace; and in the reign of Charles IX, Havre had become so important that it was given up to our Queen Elizabeth by the Protestants, as a guarantee for the assistance which she promised to send them. The Earl of Warwick, accordingly, with six thousand English, took possession of the place. They retained it in their hands for some time, and only capitulated after a long and gallant defence. The public buildings of Havre are not remarkable; but the old TOWER OF FRANCIS I, on the northern jetty, still draws the attention of travellers, on account of a deed of arms, altogether original, which was performed there towards the close of the sixteenth century. All that is known to history with regard to this exploit that it was undertaken as a means of momentary escape from military punishment for some trivial offence; and with regard to its hero, that he was a native of Caen, and that his name was Aignan Lecomte. |