converted her Franks, she built another
and a properly called cathedral, where this one stands now, under
Bishop St. Save (St. Sauve, or Salve). But even this proper cathedral
was only of wood, and the Normans burnt it in 881. Rebuilt, it stood for
200 years; but was in great part destroyed by lightning in 1019. Rebuilt
again, it and the town were more or less burnt together by lightning, in
1107,--my authority says calmly, "un incendie provoque par la meme cause
detruisit _la ville_, et une partie de la cathedrale." The 'partie'
being rebuilt once more, the whole was again reduced to ashes, "reduite
en cendre par le feu de ciel en 1218, ainsi que tous les titres, les
martyrologies, les calendriers, et les Archives de l'Eveche et du
Chapitre."

[Footnote 46: At St. Acheul. See the first chapter of this book, and
the "Description Historique de la Cathedrale d'Amiens," by A. P. M.
Gilbert. 8vo, Amiens, 1833, pp. 5-7.]

15. It was the fifth cathedral, I count, then, that lay in 'ashes,'
according to Mons. Gilbert--in ruin certainly--decheant;--and ruin of
a very discouraging completeness it would have been, to less lively
townspeople--in 1218. But it was rather of a stimulating completeness
to Bishop Everard and his people--the ground well cleared for them, as
it were: and lightning (feu de l'enfer, not du ciel, recognized for a
diabolic plague, as in Egypt), was to be defied to the pit. They only
took two years, you see, to pull themselves together; and to work they
went, in 1220, they, and their bishop, and their king, and their
Robert of Luzarches. And this, that roofs you, was what their hands
found to do with their might.

16. Their king was 'a-donc,' 'at that time,' Louis VIII., who is
especially further called the son of Philip of August, or Philip the
Wise, because his father was not dead in 1220; but must have resigned
the practical kingdom to his son, as his own father had done to him;
the old and wise king retiring to his chamber, and thence silently
guiding his son's hands, very gloriously, yet for three years.

But, farther--and this is the point on which chiefly I would have
desired the Abbe's judgment--Louis VIII. died of fever at Montpensier in
1226. And the entire conduct of the main labour of the cathedral, and
the chief glory of its service, as we shall hear presently, was _Saint_
Louis's; for a time of forty-four years. And the inscription was put "a
ce point ci" by the last architect, six years af