to decorate and to animate
the serried trunks and pendant branches, while the shattering symphonies
or dying murmurs of the organ suggested the rushing of the wind through
the forest, now the full diapason of the storm and now the gentle cadence
of the evening breeze.

Internally, the whole church was rich beyond expression. All that opulent
devotion and inventive ingenuity could devise, in wood, bronze, marble,
silver, gold, precious jewelry, or blazing sacramental furniture, had
been profusely lavished. The penitential tears of centuries had incrusted
the whole interior with their glittering stalactites. Divided into five
naves, with external rows of chapels, but separated by no screens or
partitions, the great temple forming an imposing whole, the effect was
the more impressive, the vistas almost infinite in appearance. The
wealthy citizens, the twenty-seven guilds, the six military associations,
the rhythmical colleges, besides many other secular or religious
sodalities, had each their own chapels and altars. Tombs adorned with the
effigies of mailed crusaders and pious dames covered the floor, tattered
banners hung in the air, the escutcheons of the Golden Fleece, an order
typical of Flemish industry, but of which Emperors and Kings were proud
to be the chevaliers, decorated the columns. The vast and
beautifully-painted windows glowed with scriptural scenes, antique
portraits, homely allegories, painted in those brilliant and forgotten
colors which Art has not ceased to deplore. The daylight melting into
gloom or colored with fantastic brilliancy, priests in effulgent robes
chanting in unknown language, the sublime breathing of choral music, the
suffocating odors of myrrh and spikenard, suggestive of the oriental
scenery and imagery of Holy Writ, all combined to bewilder and exalt the
senses. The highest and humblest seemed to find themselves upon the same
level within those sacred precincts, where even the bloodstained criminal
was secure, and the arm of secular justice was paralyzed.

But the work of degeneration had commenced. The atmosphere of the
cathedral was no longer holy in the eyes of increasing multitudes. Better
the sanguinary rites of Belgic Druids, better the yell of slaughtered
victims from the "wild wood without mercy" of the pagan forefathers of
the nation, than this fantastic intermingling of divine music, glowing
colors, gorgeous ceremonies, with all the burning, beheading and
strangling work w