e right,
in leaving the chapel of the virgin, is a monument concerning which
until recently, there were only conjectures. It is the statue of a
bishop stretched on his back and under an arcade. On the lower part of
the sepulchre, are mutilated bas-reliefs, which one might suppose, were
intended to represent a synod. At least, we may distinguish several
personnages seated, holding books in their hands and a bishop in the
midst of them as if presiding. On the upper part we remark angels
bearing away the soul of the deceased, represented by the body of a
young child.

M.A. Deville, in his work on _the monuments of the cathedral of Rouen_,
has proved that this monument was that of Maurice, archbishop of Rouen,
who died in 1235. I must not pass over the popular tradition, however
ridiculous it may appear, which is attached to this monument. This
tradition says, that the body of the personage laid under this stone, is
that of a bishop who, in a fit of a passion, had killed his servant with
the blow of a soup-ladle. The people add, that the bishop repenting,
wished not to be interred in the church; but at the same time he forbad
them to bury him outside of it, and it was to obey this ambiguous order
that they made him a tomb in the thickness of the wall.

Not far from the chapel of the Virgin, in the right aisle, on looking
eastward, we find the sacristy. We should stop a moment before its stone
partition with its iron door: they are both much esteemed works of the
end of the XVth century. The partition wall is from the liberality of
Philip de la Rose, chief-archdeacon, and was erected in the year 1473
according to Farin, but 1479 according to Pommeraye[10].

Leaving now the inside of the cathedral let us examine the exterior of
this admirable edifice. Here, details are impossible; we must see the
whole mass, to form an idea of it. Who could number so many pieces of
sculpture, capitals, sculptured galleries, bas-reliefs, and ornaments,
which are multiplied under all forms? Historical explanations are those
only which can be offered to the reader. We may add, that they are the
most useful, since the rest is an affair of the eyes. The whole of the
western facade, comprehended between the two front towers, is from the
munificence of cardinal d'Amboise I. The building commenced on the 12th
of june 1509, and was finished in 1530. The bas-reliefs, which decorate
the doorways under the three entrances from the porch, were more or l