top of one of these corner spiral stair-cases,
I breathed and looked around me. A new feature presented itself to my view.
About one hundred feet beneath, was the body of this huge cathedral.
Immediately above, rose the beautifully-tapering and curiously ornamented
SPIRE--to the height of probably, one hundred and twenty-five feet! It
seemed indeed as if both tower and spire were direct ladders to the sky.
The immortal artist who constructed them, and who lived to witness the
completion of his structure, was JOAN HUeLTZ, a native of Cologne. The date
of their completion is 1449. Thus, on the continent as well as in England,
the period of the most florid style of gothic architecture was during the
first half of the fifteenth century.

I essayed to mount to the very pinnacle; or _bouton_ of the spire; but the
ascent was impracticable--owing to the stair-case being under repair. On
the summit of this spire, there once stood a _statue of the Virgin,_ above
a cross. That statue was taken down at the end of the fifteenth century,
and is now placed over the south porch. But, what do you think supplied its
place during the late Revolution, or in the year of our Lord 1794, on the
4th day of May? Truly, nothing less than a large cap, made of tin, and
painted red--called the _Cap of Liberty!_ Thank heaven, this latter was
pulled down in due time--and an oblong diamond-shaped stone is now the
finishing piece of masonry of this wonderful building. In descending, I
stopped again at the platform, and was requested to see the GREAT BELL; of
which I had heard the deep-mouthed roar half a dozen times a day, since my
arrival. It is perhaps the finest toned bell in Europe, and appeared to me
terrifically large--being nearer eight than seven feet high.[209] They
begin to toll it at four or five o'clock in the summer-mornings, to
announce that the gates of the town are opened. In case of fire at night,
it is very loudly tolled; and during a similar accident in the day time,
they suspend a pole, with a red flag at the end of it, over that part of
the platform which is in a line with the direction of the fire.

A grand defect in the structure of this Cathedral, as it strikes me, is,
that the nave and transepts do not seem to belong to such a western front.
They sink into perfect insignificance. Nor is the style of their exterior
particularly deserving of description. Yet there is _one_ feature in the
external architecture of this Cathedral--nam