of coming up unexpectedly and hurling his opinion at me is
not quite the same as it was. This time, it was, indeed, not he who
undertook to crystallize my irresolution by announcing my departure for
Solesmes; but it comes to the same thing. For, after all, there is
something not quite above board in this affair. Why did the Abbe Plomb
promise the Benedictines that he would take me with him?

"He certainly acted on the request of the Abbe Gevresin. There can have
been no other reason for his talking of me to the Fathers. I have,
indeed, spoken to him of my distress of mind, of my vague craving for
retirement, and my love for monasteries. But I certainly did not suggest
that he should thus take the lead, and hurry matters on so!

"Here I am, as usual, imagining plots and schemes, looking for things
that never existed, and discerning motives where perhaps there are none.
And even if there were! Is it not for my benefit that these good friends
are laying their heads together?

"I have only to hear and obey. Now to have done with this and return to
the Bestiary; for I want to finish this work before I go." And posting
himself in front of the cathedral, he studied the south porch, which had
most of zoological mysticism and devilries.

But he did not find the monstrosities of his fancy. At Chartres the
Vices and Virtues were not symbolized by more or less chimerical
creatures, but by human faces. After careful search he discovered on
some of the pillars of the middle doorway the Vices embodied in small
carved groups: Lust, as a woman fondling a young man; Drunkenness as a
boor about to hit a bishop; Discord by a husband quarrelling with his
wife, while an empty bottle and a broken distaff lie near them.

By way of infernal monsters, the utmost he could discern,--and that by
dislocating his neck--were two dragons in the right-hand bay, one
exorcised by a monk and the other bridled by a Saint with his stole.

Of divine beasts he could distinguish in the row of Virtues certain
female figures with symbolical creatures by their side: Docility
accompanied by an ox; Chastity by a phoenix; Charity by a sheep;
Meekness by a lamb; Fortitude by a lion; Temperance by a camel. Why
should the phoenix here typify Chastity, for it is not used generally in
that sense in the Bird-books of the Middle Ages?

Somewhat disconcerted by the poverty of the fauna of Chartres, he
comforted himself by a study of this southern porch; it was a match