for
that on the north, and repeated, with a variant, the subject of the west
front--the glorification of Christ, but in His function as the Supreme
Judge, and in the person of His Saints.

This front, begun in the time of Philip Augustus, and built at the cost
of the Comte de Dreux and his wife Alice of Brittany, was not completed
till the time of Philippe le Bel. It was divided, like the other two,
into three portions: a central door with a tympanum in a pointed arch
bearing the presentment of the Last Judgment; one on the left devoted to
the Martyrs, and one on the right dedicated to the Confessors.

The central bay suggested the form of a boat set on end, its prow in the
air; its deeply spreading sides contained in their niches six Apostles
on each, and in the middle, between the doors, stood a single statue of
Christ.

This statue, like that at Amiens, was famous; every guidebook sings the
praises of the regular features, the calm expression of the face; in
reality the countenance is particularly fatuous and cold, beautiful but
lifeless. How inferior to that of the twelfth century, the expressive
and living God seated between the symbols of the Tetramorph in the
tympanum of the royal front.

The Apostles were perhaps rather more refined, rather less squat than
the patriarchs and prophets supporting Saint Anne under the north porch,
but their quality as works of art was less striking. They resembled the
Christ, Whom they escorted with decent duty: it was honest work,
phlegmatic sculpture, so to speak.

They held the instruments of their death with placid propriety, like
soldiers presenting arms.

On the right hand stood Saint Peter, holding the cross on which he was
bound head downwards; Saint Andrew, with a Latin cross, however, and not
the X-shaped cross to which he was nailed; then Saint Philip, Saint
Thomas, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, all armed with the sword, though
Saint Philip was crucified and stoned, Saint Thomas pierced with a
lance, and Saint Simon sawn asunder.

To the left were Saint Paul, substituted for Saint Matthias, chosen to
succeed Judas; he carried a sword; Saint John, bearing his Gospel; Saint
James the Great, with a sword; Saint James the Less, with a fuller's
club; Saint Bartholomew, with the knife that served to flay him, and
Saint Jude with a book.

Perched on twisted columns, they trampled under their feet--bare, in
token of their apostleship--the executioners of their martyrdom.