der these
arches; Judith and Esther, the first representative of courageous
chastity, and the second of mercy and justice."

"However, to avoid confusion, we will follow the statues in order as
they stand in this porch, three on each side.

"On the left Balaam, the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.

"On the right, Jesus the son of Sirach, Judith or Esther, and Joseph."

"Balaam is this statue of a worthy peasant, smug and friendly, smiling
in his beard, a stick in his hand and a hat like a pie-dish; and the
Queen of Sheba, the woman who bends forward a little, looking as if she
were cross-questioning and arguing over some deed she condemned. But
what have these two persons to do with the life of the Virgin?"

"Balaam is a type of the Messiah. It was he who prophesied that a star
should come out of Jacob and a sceptre rise out of Israel. As to the
Queen of Sheba, according to the teaching of the Fathers, she is an
image of the Church; Solomon's spouse, as the Church is the spouse of
Christ."

"Well, well," muttered Durtal to himself. "The thirteenth century could
not give a fitting presentment of that queen, whom we picture to
ourselves as dressed with foolish magnificence, rocking on a camel
across the desert at the head of a caravan under the blazing sky across
the furnace of sand. Her charms have appealed to writers, and not the
smallest of them; Flaubert for one--this Queen Balkis, Mekida or
Nicaule. But in the '_Tentation de Saint Antoine_' she has failed to
assume any form but that of a puerile and flimsy creature, a skipping
and lisping puppet. In fact, no one but Gustave Moreau, the painter of
Salome, could represent the woman, a virgin and a courtesan, a casuist
and a coquette. He only could give life, under the flowered panoply of
dress and the blazing gorget of jewels, to the crowned foreign face,
with its smile as of an artless sphinx, come from so far to ask enigmas.
Such a woman is too complicated for the spirit and the ingenuous art of
the Middle Ages.

"Indeed, the sculptured image is neither mysterious nor suggestive. She
is hardly pretty, and stands in the obsequious attitude of an advocate.
Solomon looks like a jovial good fellow. The two effigies on the other
side of the door might perhaps invite attention if they were not so
completely crushed by the third. Again a question. By what right does
the author of that admirable book 'Ecclesiastes' find a place in these
ranks of honour?"

"Jesus the son