But now let us examine the work.

"You will observe in the first place that, in opposition to the ritual
observed in most of the great churches of the time--those of Amiens,
Reims, and Paris, to name but three--it is not the Virgin who stands on
the pillar between the two halves of the door, but Her Mother, Saint
Anne; and inside, in the windows, we find the same thing: Saint Anne, as
a negress, her head bound in a blue kerchief, holds Mary in her arms, as
brown as a half-caste."

"Why is this?"

"No doubt because the Emperor Beaudouin, after the sack of
Constantinople, bestowed that Saint's head on this cathedral.

"The ten colossal statues placed on each side of Her in the niches of
the porch are familiar to you, for they attend Our Lady in every
sanctuary of the thirteenth century--in Paris, at Amiens, at Rouen,
Reims, Bourges, and Sens. The five to the left are a series figurative
of the Son; the five on the right symbolize Our Lord Himself. They
stand in chronological order: the prototypes of the Messiah, or the
Prophets who foretold His birth, death, resurrection, and everlasting
priesthood.

"To the left, Melchizedec, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David; to the
right, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Simeon, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint
Peter."

"But why," remarked Durtal, "is the son of Jonas in the midst of the Old
Testament? His place is not there, but in the Gospels."

"Yes, but you will observe that Saint Peter here stands next to Saint
John the Baptist; the two statues are side by side and touch each other.
Then do you not perceive the meaning of this juxtaposition? One was the
Precursor and the other the Successor of Christ; the first anticipated
Him, the second carried out His mission. It was quite natural to place
them together, and that the Chief of the Apostles should figure as the
conclusion to the premisses set forth by the other statues of this
portal.

"Finally, in addition to this series of patriarchs and prophets, you may
see there, in the hollow between the pilasters, a pair of statues, one
on each side of the door: Elijah the Tishbite, and Elisha his disciple.

"The first prefigures the Saviour's Ascension by his being carried up
alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire; the second typifies Jesus saving
and preserving mankind in the person of the Shunammite's son.

"Argument is vain," murmured Durtal, who was meditative. "The Messianic
prophecies are irresistible. All the logic of the Rabbins, the