ROUEN, a large scaport-town in France, capital of the department of Selne-Inf6rieure, is situated on the right bank of the Seine, 85 miles by railway N.W. from Paris, In 49' 26' 29" N. lat., 1' 5' 40" E. long., 71 feet above the level of the sea, and had 91,512 inhabitants in the commune at the census of 1851. Rouen occupies the site of the ancient Rotemagua, capital of the Celtio Veliocasses. Under the empire It was the chief town of Lugdunensis Seconds. It was taken and plundered by the northmen in A.D. 841 or 842, and it became their capital bt virtue of the treaty between Rollo and Charles the Simply It. continued to bo the residence of the dukes of Normandie till William the Conqueror made the conquest of England. [Non IIANDIE.) After the murder of Prince Arthur at the instigation of John in 1201, the city was taken after a siege by Philippe Auguste, king of France, and annexed with the rest of the duchy to the crown of France.
From this time Rouen was subject to the kings of Franco till 1418.10, when it was besieged by the English under Henry V. The town was resolntcly defended by a small garrison of 4000 men, under their gallant commander Alain Blanchard. As the town militia mustered 15,000 men, the population of Rouen at the time may he estimated at not less than 50,000 or 60,000. Famine at last compelled the garrison to surrender, and Henry V. tarnished the fame of his victory by the execution of the gallant Blanchard. For thirty years after this Rouen remained in the hands of the English, who here in 1431 burnt the heroin Joan of Arc in the square since called from her, the Place-de-la-Pucelle : the spot is marked by a fountain surmounted by a statue of the Maid of Orleans. In 1449 the city was recovered by the French, under Charles VII. In 1562 the Huguenot party succeeded in seizing the town, almost without resistance, and com mitted great excesses. On October the 26th of the same year it was taken, after a siege, by the Duke of Guise, who gave it up to pillage for eight days. The massacre of St. Bartholomew extended to this town, but the humanity of the governor somewhat checked the excesses. In 1593 the city was taken by Henri IV. after a siege of
eight months.
The city stands on the right or north bank of the Seine. Its form approximates to an oval, defined by the boulevards, which form a line of street adorned with trees, and occupying the site of the ancient walls, except on the aide of the river, where the city is bounded by a line of quays. Separated from the city by the boulevards are the faubourgs—Cauchoise on the west, Bouvreuil on the north-west, Beauvoisine ou the north, St.-Hilaire on the north-east, Martainville on the east, and Eauplet on the south-east. South of the city, from which it is separated by the Seine, is St-Sever, the most important of the suburbs. Opposite the central part of the city the river was formerly crossed by a floating bridge supported by 19 barges. Just below this may be seen, at low-water, the ruins of a stone bridge, erected in the 12th century by the empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I. of England, and carried away by a flood in 1564. Opposite to the upper sud lower parts of the city and suburbs are two long islands—the upper called Ile-de-la-Croix, or Ile-de-la-Moucque; the lower, the Ile-du-Petit-Gay. Between these islands is the harbour for seaborne vessels. At the western or lower end of the Ile-de-la-Croix the river is crossed by a stone bridge, divided into two parts by the point of the island. On the point of the island between the two parts of the bridge is a circular area adorned with a column. A suspension bridge also crosses this part of the river, connecting the city with the suburb of St.-Sever. Above the stone bridge, on the east side of La-Croix islet, lie the large river craft and small steamers that ply to Paris. Two small rivers, the Robec and the Aubette, traverse the eastern part of the suburbs and city by artificial channels, and flow into the Seine near the stone bridge. On the east side of the city, between the Seine and the Aubette, rises Mount St-Catherine, a bold eminence 380 feet high. On the left bank of the Seine, along which it extends for about a mile from the south end of the stone bridge, is the principal public walk, Le-Grand-Cours, planted with four rows of fine elms.