comme
aussi d'etre associe, luy et sa tres genereuse et tres illustre epouse, aux
suffrages de leur compagnie, et a la participation de tous les biens qu'il
plaira a Dieu leur donner la grace d'operer," p. 204. A grand procession
marked the day of the Duke's admission into the monkish fraternity. The
whole of this, with an account of the Duke's superb presents to the
sacristy, his dining with his Duchess, and receiving their portion of
"eight loaves and four gallons of wine," are distinctly narrated by the
minute Pommeraye.

As you approach the _Chapel of the Virgin_, you pass by an ancient
monument, to the left, of a recumbent Bishop, reposing behind a thin
pillar, within a pretty ornamented Gothic arch.[45] To the eye of a
tasteful antiquary this cannot fail to have its due attraction. While
however we are treading upon hallowed ground, rendered if possible more
sacred by the ashes of the illustrious dead, let us move gently onwards
towards the _Chapel of the Virgin_, behind the choir. See, what bold and
brilliant monumental figures are yonder, to the right of the altar! How
gracefully they kneel and how devoutly they pray! They are the figures of
the CARDINALS D'AMBOISE--uncle and nephew:--the former, minister of Louis
XII.[46] and (what does not necessarily follow, but what gives him as high
a claim upon the gratitude of posterity) the restorer and beautifier of the
glorious building in which you are contemplating his figure. This splendid
monument is entirely of black and white marble, of the early part of the
sixteenth century. The figures just mentioned are of white marble, kneeling
upon cushions, beneath a rich canopy of Gothic fretwork. They are in their
professional robes; their heads are bare, exhibiting the tonsure, with the
hair in one large curl behind. A small whole-length figure of _St. George_,
their tutelary saint, is below them, in gilded marble: and the whole base,
or lower frieze, of the monument, is surrounded by six delicately
sculptured females, about three feet high, emblematic of the virtues for
which these cardinals were so eminently distinguished. These figures,
representing Faith, Charity, Prudence, Force, Justice, and Temperance, are
flanked by eight smaller ones, placed in carved niches; while, above them,
are the twelve Apostles, not less beautifully executed.[47]

On gazing at this splendid monument of ancient piety and liberality--and
with one's mind deeply intent upon the characters o