IX.

/Epernay./

The connection of Epernay with the production of wine of remote date--The town repeatedly burnt and plundered--Hugh the Great carries off all the wine of the neighbourhood--Vineyards belonging to the Abbey of St. Martin in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries--Abbot Gilles orders the demolition of a wine-press which infringes the abbey's feudal rights--Bequests of vineyards in the fifteenth century--Francis I. bestows Epernay on Claude Duke of Guise in 1544--The Eschevins send a present of wine to their new seigneur--Wine levied for the king's camp at Rethel and the strongholds of the province by the Duc de Longueville--Epernay sacked and fired on the approach of Charles V.--The Charles-Fontaine vendangeoir at Avenay--Destruction of the immense pressoirs of the Abbey of St. Martin--The handsome Renaissance entrance to the church of Epernay--Plantation of the 'terre de siége' with vines in 1550--Money and wine levied on Epernay by Condé and the Duke of Guise--Henri Quatre lays siege to Epernay--Death of Maréchal Biron--Desperate battle amongst the vineyards--Triple talent of the 'bon Roy Henri' for drinking, fighting, and love-making--Verses addressed by him to his 'belle hôtesse' Anne du Puy--The Epernay Town Council make gifts of wine to various functionaries to secure their good-will--Presents of wine to Turenne at the coronation of Louis XIV.--Petition to Louvois to withdraw the Epernay garrison that the vintage may be gathered in--The Duke and Duchess of Orleans at Epernay--Louis XIV. partakes of the local vintage at the maison abbatiale on his way to the army of the Rhine--Increased reputation of the wine of Epernay at the end of the seventeenth century--Numerous offerings of it to the Marquis de Puisieux, Governor of the town--The Old Pretender presented at Epernay with twenty-four bottles of the best--Sparkling wine sent to the Marquis de Puisieux at Sillery, and also to his nephew--Further gifts to the Prince de Turenne--The vintage destroyed by frost in 1740--The Epernay slopes at this epoch said to produce the most delicious wine in Europe--Vines planted where houses had formerly stood--The development of the trade in sparkling wine--A 'tirage' of fifty thousand bottles in 1787--Arthur Young drinks Champagne at Epernay at forty sous the bottle--It is surmised that Louis XVI., on his return from Varennes, is inspired by Champagne at Epernay--Napoleon and his family enjoy the hospitality of Jean Remi Moët--King Jerome of Westphalia's true prophecy with regard to the Russians and Champagne--Disgraceful conduct of the Prussians and Russians at Epernay in 1814--The Mayor offers them the free run of his cellars--Charles X., Louis Philippe, and Napoleon III. accept the 'vin d'honneur' at Epernay--The town occupied by German troops during the war of 1870-1 195