en attained
by some men, neither Leroux himself nor Pierre Desaubeaulx his
fellow-workman had been touched by it. The very inscription proclaims
the exact reverse of that grisly triumph which is celebrated so
clearly on the opposite tomb; for the virtues of Georges d'Amboise are
said to be superior to death:--

"Pastor eram cleri populi pater aurea sese
Lilia subdebant quercus et ipsa mihi
Mortuus en jaceo morte extinguuntur honores
_At virtus mortis nescia morte viret_."

[Illustration: TOMB OF THE TWO CARDINALS D'AMBOISE IN THE CHAPELLE DE
LA SAINTE VIERGE IN ROUEN CATHEDRAL]

An optimism that may have been foreign to his age is appropriate to
this sturdy and ambitious ecclesiastic, who did not forget to do so
much material good for his town of Rouen, with waterworks, and even
drainage, and fair new buildings spaciously designed; all this in
spite of wider interests which did not stop at the tiara itself, of
which all men said the great cardinal was worthy. Of the two statues
that are now within the arched recess, the one on the right represents
him, and it must have been an excellent likeness. It has been called a
peasant face; and it is certainly no courtier who kneels there before
the carving of his patron saint slaying the dragon. The square head,
the deep brows, the heavy jaw and firm mouth, are not beautiful, but
they are impressive, and they show a character as far removed from the
peasant as it was from the voluptuary, as near akin to the
administrator of Normandy as to the Cardinal of the Holy Church. I
have little doubt that this was the handiwork of the Rouland Leroux
who must have often seen him in the Cathedral, and who helped to build
the great Palais de Justice, which was given to Rouen at his request.

In the statue on the left hand, it is more possible that Jean Goujon
(to whom so many things are ascribed without foundation) may have had
a hand. For this was put up in 1541, at least sixteen years after the
first one, in memory of the second Georges d'Amboise, the nephew of
the greater cardinal, and the last archbishop freely elected by the
Chapterhouse. Of the multitude of carvings that are in the alabaster
and marble round these statues, it is scarcely possible to give any
description that will be intelligible, and if their value in history
does not tempt you to visit them yourself, I can only point you to the
drawing that Miss James has done to make these pages more
int