"--And, in the subsequent warfare of the fifteenth century,
this town, like the others in the duchy, was taken by our countrymen,
under Henry Vth, and lost by them under his successor.--Hither the
Norman parliament retired when the Huguenots were in possession of
Rouen; and here they remained till the recapture of the capital.--It was
probably owing in a great measure to this circumstance, that Louviers
was induced to distinguish itself by a devoted attachment to the party
of the league, for which it suffered severely in 1591, when it was
captured and pillaged by the royalists shortly after their victory at
Ivry. The town was then taken through the treachery of a priest of the
name of Jean de la Tour, who received, as a recompence, a stall in the
cathedral at Evreux, but was so much an object of abhorrence with his
brethren, that he scarcely ever ventured to appear in his place. During
the holy week, however, he attended; and it once happened, that while he
was so officiating, all the canons contrived to leave the church towards
the close of the psalm, which immediately precedes the _Benedictus_ at
_Laudes_, so that the anthem, _Traditor autem_, which is sung with that
hymn, necessarily fell to the part of de la Tour, who found himself
compelled to chaunt it, to his own extreme confusion, and the infinite
amusement of the congregation.
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