t as the passage of the
Red Sea is an image of Baptism. He holds the Table of the Law and the
staff round which the Brazen Serpent is twined. Then comes Samuel, in
many ways typical of Christ, the founder of the Royal Priesthood and of
Pontifical Kingship; and last of all, David holding the Lamb and Crown
of Calvary.

"I need hardly remind you that this Prophet-King, more than any other
personage, prefigured the sorrows of the Messiah, and that he too, to
make the resemblance more perfect, had his Judas in the person of
Achitophel, who, like the later traitor, hanged himself."

"You must admit," said Durtal, "that these statues, before which the
historians of this cathedral go into ecstasies, declaring in chorus they
are the highest achievement of thirteenth-century sculpture, are far
inferior to those of the twelfth century that adorn the great north
porch. How evident is the lowering of the divine standard! Their action
is freer, no doubt, and the play of drapery is broader. The rhubarb-stem
plaits of the robes are fuller, and have some movement, but where is the
grace as of a sculptured soul that we see in the royal porch? All these
statues, with their massive heads, are thick-set and mute, devoid of
communicative life. This is pious work--fine work, if you will--but
devoid of the 'beyond'; here is art indeed, but it has ceased to be
mysticism.

"Look at St. Anne with her gloomy expression, either cross or
suffering--how far she is from the so-called Radegonde and Berthe!

"With the exception of two, St. John and St. Joseph over there in the
innermost part of the arch, these are familiar figures. They also occur
at Reims and at Amiens. And do you remember the Simeon, the Virgin, and
the St. Anne at Reims? The Virgin so guilelessly charming, so
exquisitely chaste, holding out the Infant to Simeon, who stands mild
and devout in his solemn garb as High Priest. St. Anne--a head of the
same type as St. Joseph's, and as those of two angels on the same
frontal, standing by St. Nicasius, with his head cut off at the
brows--St. Anne with a smiling, arch expression and yet elderly--a sharp
little chin, large eyes, a thin, long, pointed nose, the look of a
youthful duena, kindly but knowing.

"But, indeed, those image-makers excelled in creating these singular,
indefinable countenances. Do you recall Our Lady of Paris, later, I
believe, by a century? She is scarcely pretty, but so expressive, with
the smile of happiness p