Lord. She is crowned, and has a smile upon her face now for
ever; and in the canopy above her head are three angels, bearing up the
aureole there; and about these angels, and the aureole and head of the
Virgin, there is still some gold and vermilion left. The Holy Child,
held in His mother's left arm, is draped from His throat to His feet, and
between His hands He holds the orb of the world. About on a level with
the Virgin, along the sides of the doorway, are four figures on each
side, the innermost one on either side being an angel holding a censer;
the others are ecclesiastics, and (some book says) benefactors to the
church. They have solemn faces, stern, with firm close-set lips, and
eyes deep-set under their brows, almost frowning, and all but one or two
are beardless, though evidently not young; the square door valves are
carved with deep-twined leaf-mouldings, and the capitals of the
door-shafts are carved with varying knots of leaves and flowers. Above
the Virgin, up in the tympanum of the doorway, are carved the Twelve
Apostles, divided into two bands of six, by the canopy over the Virgin's
head. They are standing in groups of two, but I do not know for certain
which they are, except, I think, two, St. James and St. John; the two
first in the eastern division. James has the pilgrim's hat and staff,
and John is the only beardless one among them; his face is rather sad,
and exceedingly lovely, as, indeed are all those faces, being somewhat
alike; and all, in some degree like the type of face received as the
likeness of Christ himself. They have all long hair falling in rippled
bands on each side of their faces, on to their shoulders. Their drapery,
too, is lovely; they are very beautiful and solemn. Above their heads
runs a cornice of trefoiled arches, one arch over the head of each
apostle; from out of the deep shade of the trefoils flashes a grand leaf
cornice, one leaf again to each apostle; and so we come to the next
compartment, which contains three scenes from the life of St. Honore, an
early French bishop. The first scene is, I think, the election of a
bishop, the monks or priests talking the matter over in chapter first,
then going to tell the bishop-elect. Gloriously-draped figures the monks
are, with genial faces full of good wisdom, drawn into quaint expressions
by the joy of argument. This one old, and has seen much of the world; he
is trying, I think, to get his objections answered by the