Human groups and figures are
interspersed, some scriptural, historical, or legendary; others mystical
and allegorical. Engravings from these medallions would form a volume
of uncommon interest. Two lofty towers ornament the transept, such as
are usually seen only at the western front of a cathedral. The upper
story of each is perforated by a gigantic window, divided by a single
mullion, or central pillar, not exceeding one foot in circumference, and
nearly sixty feet in height. These windows are entirely open, and the
architect never intended that they should be glazed. An extraordinary
play of light and shade results from this construction. The rose window
in the centre of the transept is magnificent: from within, the painted
glass produces the effect of a kaleidoscope.--The pediment or gable of
this transept was materially injured by a storm, in 1638, one hundred
and thirty years after it was completed; and the damage was never
restored.

The southern transept bears a near resemblance to that which I have
already described; but it was originally richer in its ornaments, and it
still preserves some of its statues. Here the medallions relate chiefly
to scripture-history; but the sculpture is greatly corroded by the
weather, and the more delicate parts are nearly obliterated; besides
which, as well here, as at the other entrances, the Calvinists, in 1562,
and, more recently, the Revolutionists, have been most mischievously
destructive, mutilating and decapitating without mercy. The spirit,
indeed, of the French reformers, bore a near resemblance to the
proceedings of John Knox and his brethren: the people embraced the new
doctrine with turbulent violence. There was in it nothing moderate,
nothing gradual: it was not the regular flow of public opinion,
undermining abuses, and bringing them slowly to their fall; but it was
the thunderbolt, which--

"In sua templa furit, nullaque exire vetante
Materia, magnamque cadens magnamque revertens
Dat stragem late sparsosque recolligit ignes."

Among the legends recorded on the southern portal, or the _Portail de la
Calende_, is that of the corn-merchant; the confiscation of whose
property paid, as the chronicles tell us, for the erection of this
beautiful entrance. He himself, if we may believe the same authority,
was hanged in the street opposite to it, in consequence of having been
detected in the use of false measures.

The original Lady-Chapel, at the east e