pphires, as it were, still
infantine and tremulous. And in the right hand pointed window he could
distinguish in burning red the Stem of Jesse--figures piled up espalier
fashion, in the blue fire of the sky; while to the left and in the
middle, scenes were shown from the Life of Jesus--the Annunciation, Palm
Sunday, the Transfiguration, the Last Supper, and the Supper at Emmaus;
and above these three windows Christ hurled thunder from the heart of
the great rose, the dead emerged from their graves at the trumpet-call,
and St. Michael weighed souls.

"How did the glass-makers discover and compound that twelfth century
blue?" wondered Durtal. "And why have their successors so long lost it,
as well as their red?

"In the twelfth century glass-painters made use chiefly of three
colours; first, blue--that ineffable, uncertain sky-blue which is the
glory of the Chartres windows; then red--a purplish red, full and
important; and green--inferior in quality to the two others. For white
they preferred a greenish tinge.

"In the following century the palette is more extensive, but the stain
is darker; the glass, too, is thicker. And yet, what a glowing blue of
pure, bold sapphire tone the artists of the furnace had at their
command, and what a fine red they used, the colour of fresh blood!
Yellow, of which they were less lavish, was, if I may judge from the
robe of a king near the Abraham, in a window by the transept, a daring
hue of bright lemon. But apart from these three colours, which have a
sort of resonance, and burst forth like songs of joy in these
transparent pictures, others grow more sober; the violets are like
Orleans plums or purple egg-fruit, the browns are of the hue of burnt
sugar, the chive-coloured greens turn dark.

"But what masterpieces of colour they achieved by the harmony and
contrast of these tones, and with what skill did they handle the
lead-lines, emphasizing certain details, punctuating and dividing these
paragraphs of flame as if with lines of ink.

"And another thing which is amazing is the perfect agreement of all
these various crafts, practised side by side, treating the same
subjects, or supplementing each other--each, by its own mode of
expression, under one guiding mind, contributing to the whole; with what
a sense of fitness, with what skill were the posts distributed, the
places assigned to each as beseemed the purpose of his craft, the
requirements of his art.

"Architecture having fi