y. On the archivolts are
angels, patriarchs, prophets, and kings. The jambs and casements are
decorated with thirty-seven marvellously vivid reliefs of the signs of
the Zodiac, the seasons and labours of the year, a kind of almanac of
stone of rare invention and execution. On the embrasures of the door
are, among others, the favourite Parisian saints: Denis, Genevieve and
Stephen. On the central pier, below the Virgin and Child, are the
Creation, Temptation and Fall. The whole of this portal will repay
careful inspection.

St. Anne's portal, under the south tower, is more archaic, and indeed
some of its sculptures are believed to have come from an earlier
Romanesque building. Along the lintel are seen episodes in the life of
St. Anne and in the life of Mary: in the central band, to the left,
are the Presentation, the Annunciation, the Visitation; in the middle
the Nativity in various scenes; to the right Herod, and the Adoration
of the Magi. The whole of these reliefs are twelfth-century work, with
the exception of the Presentation, which is thirteenth century. In the
hemicycle above are the Virgin and Child under a Byzantine canopy with
angels and founders on either side. On the central pier stands St.
Marcel, Bishop of Paris, banning the horrible serpent that made his
lair in a tomb: the retreating serpent's tail is seen on the pier.
Both on this and on the north portal traces of painting still remain.

Before leaving, we note the beautiful mediaeval wrought hinges
(restored) which came from the old church of St. Stephen and which
have been copied for the central portal. The three portals were
completed in 1208.

Above them and across the whole facade runs a gallery of kings,
twenty-eight in number--a perennial source of controversy. Authorities
are divided between the kings of France and the kings of Israel and
Judah, the royal ancestry of the Virgin. From the analogy of other
cathedrals we incline to the latter view. The gallery dates not later
than 1220, but the statues are modern reproductions. Yet higher, on
the pierced balustrade, is a group of the Virgin between two angels
and on either side, over the N. and S. portals, Adam and Eve. A
gallery of graceful columns knits the towers together (which were
intended to be crowned by spires) before they soar from the facade.
Between the towers, in olden times, as we know from an illumination in
a Froissart MS., stood a great statue of the Virgin. The whole of this