Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: assaults of the ocean, but to those of the still more bitter Rabelais, in whose immortal work " la grande nau Franchise" received honourable mention — a stupendous ship built by Francis I., which it was found impossible, on account of her immense size, to launch, into the sea. Still, it must be confessed, that we owe the fact of such mention only to tradition ; for at present there is no one extant who has read Rabelais, Scarcely a score of years, however, after the first inundation, a fleet issued from this laughter-stricken 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 is, that it was undertaken as a means of momentary escape from the punishment of some trivial offence; and with regard to its hero, that he was a native of Caen, and that his name was Aignan Lecomte. This adventure, given as an isolated fact, unconnected with the other incidents of his life, resembles an act ofaimless insanity, which we pity while we admire. We, however, who permit our insignificant life to run away in researches after details which are beneath the notice of the historian, have di...