vines are scarcely any where to be seen in Normandy, much north of
Gaillon.]

[Footnote 13: In a charter belonging to the monastery, granted by Henry
IInd, in 1159, (see _Neustria Pia_, p. 323) he gives the convent,
"integritatem aquæ ex parte terræ Monachorum, et _Graspais_, si fortè
capiatur."--The word _Graspais_ is explained by Ducange to be a
corruption of _crassus piscis_. Noel (in his _Essais sur le Département
de la Seine Inférieure_, II, p. 168) supposes that it refers
particularly to porpoises, which he says are still found in such
abundance in the Seine, nearer its mouth, that the river sometimes
appears quite black with them.]

[Footnote 14: The following account of the destruction of the monastery
is extracted from William of Jumieges. (See _Duchesne's Scriptores
Normanni_, p. 219)--"Dehinc Sequanica ora aggrediuntur, et apud
_Gemmeticum_ classica statione obsidionein componunt.... In quo
quamplurima multitudo Episcoporum, seu Clericorum, vel nobilium
laïcorum, spretis secularibus pompis, collecta, Christo Regi militatura,
propria colla saluberrimo iugo subegit. Cuius loci Monachi, sive incolæ,
Paganorum adventum comperientes, fugâ lapsi quædam suarum rerum sub
terra occulentes, quædam secum asportantes, Deo juvante evaserunt.
Pagani locum vacuum reperientes, Monasterium sanctæ Mariæ sanctíque
Petri, et cuncta ædificia igne iniecto adurunt, in solitudinem omnia
redigentes. Hac itaque patrata eversione, locus, qui tauto honoris
splendore diu viguerat, exturbatis omnibus ac subuersis domibus, cœpit
esse cubile ferarum et volucrum: maceriis in sua soliditate in sublime
porrectis, arbustisque densissimis; et arborum virgultis per triginta
fermè annorum curricula ubique a terra productis."]