of repairing it; but that two barges were continually plying for the
transport of heavy goods. The delay between the destruction of the stone
bridge, and the erection of the boat bridge, appears to have been
occasioned by the desire of the citizens to have a second similar to the
first; but this, after repeated deliberations, was at last determined to
be impracticable, from the depth and rapidity of the stream. Napoléon,
however, seems to have thought that the task which had been accomplished
under the auspices of the Empress Matilda, might be again repeated in
the name of the daughter of the Cæsars and the wife of the successor
of Charlemagne; and he actually caused Maria-Louisa to lay the first
stone of a new bridge, at some distance farther to the east, where an
island divides the river into two. This, I am told, will certainly he
finished, though at an enormous expence, and though it will occasion
great inconvenience to many inhabitants of the quay, whose houses will
be rendered useless by the height to which it will be necessary to raise
the soil upon the occasion. My informant added, that, small as is the
appearance yet made above water, whole quarries of stone and forests of
wood have been already sunk for the purpose.

From the scite of the projected bridge, the view eastward is
particularly charming. The bold hill of St. Catherine presents its steep
side of bare chalk, spotted only in a few places with vegetation or
cottages, and seems to oppose an impassable barrier; the mixture of
country-houses with trees at its base, makes a most pleasing variety;
and, still nearer, the noble elms of the _boulevards_ add a character of
magnificence possessed by few other cities. The _boulevards_ of Rouen
are rather deficient in the Parisian accompaniments of dancing-dogs and
music-grinders, but the sober pedestrian will, perhaps, prefer them to
their namesakes in the capital. Here they are not, as at Paris, in the
centre of the town, but they surround it, except upon the quay, with