ands, foliage, and
fruits. The abaci, too, though they are in general plain, are in some
instances enriched with similar sculpture, as in the churches of
Graville, of Cerisy, and of the Holy Trinity at Caen. In the clerestory,
over every arch below, were originally two smaller semi-circular-headed
arches; but these are now closed, and their place is occupied by a
single, narrow, pointed window, that opens into a large recess. The
corbels without, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. A._) may bear a comparison,
in point of singularity, with those of any other Norman church. The
sacred emblem of the Christian faith, the wimpled nun, the whiskered
Saxon, and the wolf, the scourge of Neustria, are found among them, side
by side with the Atlas and Cyclops of heathen mythology; and, as if the
legends of Rome and Greece could not furnish sufficient subjects for the
sculptor's chisel, he appears to have extended his researches into the
more remote regions, bordering upon the Nile, and thence to have
imported a rude imitation of the Egyptian head, and one still more rude,
of the mystic Scarabaeus.

NOTES:

[195] St. Lo was then commanded by M. Colombieres, who was so resolute
in the cause, that, rather than surrender, he placed himself in the
middle of the breach, with his two young sons, on either side of him,
each holding a javelin in his hand, and then awaited the attack,
exhorting his children to perish bravely, rather than be left to
infidels and apostates. The Catholic army was headed by M. de Matignon,
who had, on a former occasion, distinguished himself by his lenity
towards the inhabitants of the place. The lordship of St. Lo, with the
title of a barony, continued in his family as late as the year 1722,
when Masseville published his History of Normandy.

[196] For the following details, and indeed the greater part of the
remainder of this article, the author has to express his obligations to
M. de Gerville, whose kind assistance, throughout the whole of the work,
cannot be too often, or too distinctly, acknowledged.

[197] The bas-relief upon this medallion represents the most impressive
of the miracles connected with the history of St. Lo, and one that was
performed at the very moment when he was about to enter upon the duties
of his episcopacy, to which, by a manifest interposition of the Deity,
he had been elected at the early age of twelve years. _Rouault_, in his
_Abrege de la Vie des Eveques de Coutances_, p. 81, give