expressive as the others are dull. He is apart from the conventional
and hackneyed type. He stands upright, savage but mild, with his beard
in curling prongs, his lean frame, his raiment of camel-skin; we can
hear him speaking as he points to the Lamb carrying the hastate cross
surrounded by a nimbus, pressing it to his bosom with both hands. That
statue is sublime, and it is most certainly not by the same hand that
carved the Abraham, nor even his immediate neighbour, Samuel. This
prophet appears to be offering to David, who cares not, a lamb he is
feeling, head downwards. He is a butcher pricing his goods, weighing the
meat, inviting you to feel it, and hesitating to sell till he gets the
best price. How different from the Saint John!"

"The tympanum of the door will have no charm for us," the Abbe went on.
"The death of the Virgin, Her assumption and coronation are more curious
to read of in the Golden Legend than to study in those has-reliefs which
are but an epitome.

"We will proceed to the left-hand doorway.

"It is much mutilated, in a lamentable state of ruin. Most of the large
statues have disappeared. There were once, it would seem, as on the
royal porch of Notre Dame at Paris and the southern porch at Reims, the
figures of the Synagogue and the Church; also Leah and Rachel, typifying
the active and the contemplative life, of which we shall decipher the
details recorded in the archivolt.

"Of the large figures that remain, three are regarded as masterpieces:
the Virgin, Saint Elizabeth, and Daniel.

"That is saying a great deal," cried Durtal. "They are stupid-looking
and the drapery is cold; the arrangement of their robes recalls the
Greek peplum; they have a prophetic savour of the Renaissance."

"I will not contradict you; but what is really attractive is the scheme
of ideas expressed by the figures in the hollow mouldings of the arch
of this portal, based on an equilateral triangle. As to the tympanum,
which displays the Nativity, the calling of the Shepherds of Bethlehem,
the dream and adoration of the Kings, it is marred and worn by time; nor
is it in a style of art that can move us deeply.

"Study the mouldings of the arch with the four rows of images that adorn
them. First the inner one, with its ten torch-bearing angels; the
second, illustrating the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the
third, representing the _Psychomachia_, or struggle between the Virtues
and the Vices; the fourth, a