isted. But it cannot
have been long after the reign of Francis I. that Cibo's architect
carried his west front between 40 and 50 metres high, because the
crest and devices of that monarch were preserved in the old work. In
1846 it will hardly be credited that so much of that old work still
remained as may be seen in the drawing, copied from the sketch of a
contemporary architect, which I have reproduced on page 236. From this
it will be observed that one of the most ingenious and original
devices of the Middle Ages at their close had been developed for the
entrance to St. Ouen.

[Illustration: THE ORIGINAL WEST FRONT OF ST. OUEN WHICH WAS PULLED
DOWN TO ERECT THE MODERN FACADE]

A glance at the western facades of the Cathedral and of St. Maclou
will make clearer what I have to say. For the Cathedral is in almost a
straight line along its west front, though the two towers at each end
give almost a suggestion of a retreating curve. St. Maclou, on the
other hand, shaped like the eastern apse of most churches, has a bold
curve forwards from north and south, meeting in the central door which
projects some way beyond the side doors on its own facade, as may be
seen from Miss James's particularly instructive drawing in the
frontispiece. St. Ouen presented the only remaining third possibility,
a curve inwards, in which the central door was pushed back, and at an
angle on each side of it the arched portals of the aisles curved
forwards, and above them rose two towers, each a reduced copy of that
larger exquisite central tower which crowns the Abbey. Though the old
masonry remained, and though a complete working drawing of the whole
facade was discovered in the archives of the town, the job of pulling
everything down and building the new and horrible spires was given to
an architect who had already destroyed an old tower in the angle of
the courtyard of the Palais de Justice, and had made a "grille" for
its facade filled with inconsequent anachronisms and errors.

After this, your only consolation will be to pass through the western
gates as swiftly as may be to the interior. Its whole length is 416
feet 8 inches, and the vault is 100 feet high; the nave is 34 feet
broad, and the aisles 22 feet. This magnificent fabric has had hard
usage. After being sacked when it was scarce completed, by the
Protestants in 1562, it was turned into a museum by the Revolution,
and in 1793 was used as a blacksmith's shop for making arms. Yet
n