of Christ, to make room for their
processions to enter. The priceless sculpture of the tympanum was cut
through to make a loftier and wider entrance, and the whole symmetry
of the west front was grievously destroyed.[156] This hideous
architectural deformity remained until a son of the Revolution,
Viollet le Duc, restored the portal to its original form. After the
havoc wrought at Notre Dame, Soufflot's energies were diverted to the
holy mount of St. Genevieve. Louis XV. had attributed his recovery at
Metz to the intercession of the saint, and in 1754, when the abbot
complained to the king of the almost ruined condition of the abbey
church, he found a sympathetic listener. Soufflot and the chapter, who
shared the prevalent contempt of Gothic, decided to abandon the
venerable old pile, with its millennial associations of the patron
saint of Paris, and to build a grand domed classic temple on the abbey
lands to the west. Funds for the sacred work were raised by levying a
tax on public lotteries. The old church, with the exception of the
tower, was finally demolished in 1802, when the rude stone coffin
which had held the body of St. Genevieve until it was burnt by
revolutionary fanatics, was transferred to St. Etienne du Mont.

[Footnote 156: The aspect of the west front with Soufflot's
"improvements" is well seen in _Les Principaux Monuments Gothiques de
l'Europe_, published in Brussels, 1843.]

[Illustration: SOUTH DOOR OF NOTRE DAME.]

On 6th September 1764, the crypt of the new St. Genevieve being
completed, the Well-Beloved laid the first stone of the church.
Scarcely was the scaffolding removed after thirteen years of
constructive labour, and the expenditure of sixteen millions of
livres, when it became necessary to call in Soufflot's pupil Rondelet,
to shore up the walls and strengthen the columns which had proved too
weak to sustain the weight of the huge cupola. But before the temple
was consecrated, the Revolutionists came, and noting its monumental
aspect used it with admirable fitness as a Pantheon Francais for the
remains of their heroes; the dome designed to cover the relics of St.
Genevieve soared over the ashes of Voltaire, Mirabeau, Rousseau and
Marat. Thrice has this unlucky fane been the prize of Catholic and
Revolutionary reactionaries. In 1806 Napoleon I. restored it to
Christian worship; in 1822 the famous inscription--"_Aux grands Hommes
la Patrie reconnaissante_" was removed by Louis XVIII., and