1365. The cultivation of the grape seems to have been carried on

in even the most distant of the numerous possessions of the abbey, which drew 'rentes de vin' from Chatillon and Dormans; and in 1373 we find Abbot Gilles de Baronne compelling an unfortunate inhabitant of Romains, near Fismes, to demolish forthwith a wine-press he had dared to erect to the prejudice of the 'droits seigneuriaux et bannaux' which the abbey had over that village. The military orders had their share, too; for the Commandery of the Temple at Reims owned at Epernay at the commencement of the fourteenth century a house and some vineyards, still bearing the name of 'Les Tempières.' In 1419, Philippe le Maître and his wife left to the curé of Epernay a little vineyard at Montebon to pay for a yearly mass; and at a somewhat later date, Isabelle la Linotte bequeathed to the abbey the vineyard De la Ronce at Mardeuil.[431] [Illustration: FRANCIS I. (From a portrait of the time).] Indeed, the history of Epernay is most intimately connected with that of its wine, which figures throughout its records as a constant attraction to friends and foes. After the final expulsion of the English, the town gradually recovered its prosperity, and became an appanage of the Dukes of Orleans. At the commencement of the sixteenth century we find Francis I.--to whom it had reverted on the death of Louise of Savoy--presenting it to Claude, Duke of Guise, and the eschevins resolving in 1544 that their new seigneur should be offered 'twenty poinçons of the best wine that can be found in the cellars of the district, and that after the vintage twenty more of the new crop shall be sent to him.'[432] A levy of one hundred poinçons had already been demanded of them for the camp formed by the King at Rethel two years before; and the various strongholds of the province had been freely supplied with wine exacted from Epernay by the Duke de Longueville, lieutenant-governor of the Champagne. [Illustration: THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. (From a portrait of the time).] [Illustration] On the advance of Charles V. in 1544, the Dauphin, afterwards Henri II., following the example successfully set by Anne de Montmorency in Provence, pitilessly sacked the entire district of the Marne, in order that the enemy might find nothing to live on, and stored the product, which included an enormous quantity of wine, in Epernay. The Emperor advanced, meeting with but little opposition, and having taken up his quarters in the Abbey of Avenay, amused himself with building the vendangeoir known as Charles-Fontaine on the adjacent slope, as a testimony of his intention to make, if possible, a permanent sojourn in a province, the vinous products of which he so highly esteemed.[433] But whilst the illustrious patron of Titian and his 'swarthy grave commanders' were snugly tippling the choicest vintages contained in the abbey cellars, and his followers camped outside Epernay were waiting for the hour when they should revel at pleasure on the wine stored in the town, their hopes vanished literally in smoke. For Francis, fearing the town would be unable to hold out, had sent word to Captain Sery to burn it, and destroy the accumulated store of provisions, in order to prevent them falling into the hands of the enemy. This was accordingly done on the 3d September, and amongst the property consumed were the immense pressoirs of the Abbey of St. Martin. In this conflagration the church of Epernay was no doubt also destroyed, as the handsome Renaissance doorway--the sole ancient portion of the existing edifice--was evidently erected in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The misfortunes of the town did not cease with this calamity, for a great pestilence seems to have marked the return of the inhabitants to their ruined dwellings at the epoch of the following vintage.[434] Five years later, six arpents of the 'terre de siege' where the Spaniards had encamped were planted with vines by the Count de Nanteuil-le-Haudouin, and received the name of the Vineyard de la Plante.[435] [Illustration: MARIE STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS.] [Illustration: RENAISSANCE DOORWAY TO THE CHURCH OF EPERNAY.] [Illustration: ATTACK ON THE HUGUENOTS AT EPERNAY.] As a matter of course, the hapless fate of the town pursued it during the religious wars of the sixteenth century. In 1567 the Huguenots, under Condé, seized on Epernay--then a portion of the appanage of the unfortunate Marie Stuart of Scotland--and exacted a ransom of 10,500 livres, towards which the Abbey of St. Martin contributed 3451 livres, partly in money and partly in wine, calculated at no more than eleven livres the queue. A higher price appears to have ruled on the recapture of the town by the Duke of Guise the same year, when the levy made consisted of 500 pièces of wine, estimated at twenty-four livres the queue.[436] Guise was driven out by the inhabitants in 1588; but after one fruitless assault, the Leaguers under Rosné succeeded in obtaining forcible possession of Epernay four years later. On Henri Quatre laying siege in turn to Epernay in 1592, the vineyards around the town were again literally watered with blood. One notable