red years in advance of St. Pol.

The pride of St. Pol de Leon is the church of Notre Dame-de-Creizker. Its
steeple, nearly 400 feet high, was said by Vauban to be the boldest piece
of architecture he ever beheld. It is built in the centre of the church,
entirely of granite, cut in the shape of tiles and open work, to within
eighty feet from the base. According to the legend, on the spot where the
church now stands, there lived in the time of St. Genevroc, a young girl,
whom the saint found, when passing her house on the fete of our Lady,
employed at her needle. He reproached her gently with her impiety, yet she
went on sewing, saying "she required food on Sundays as well as on work
days." But the girl has hardly finished speaking, when all her body became
cold and motionless as a stone. She was completely paralysed. Asking
pardon of St. Genevroc, he made the sign of the cross upon each of her
limbs, and the power of motion returned. Grateful for her recovery, she
gave to the saint, her house, which was situated in the middle of the town
(as its name implies), as a site for his church. It is said to have been
built by an English architect, invited to Brittany by Mary Plantagenet,
daughter of Edward III., and first wife of Duke John IV.(11)

The axis of the nave is inclined to the left, a mystic allusion to the
position of the head of the expiring Saviour on the cross. _Et inclinato
capite, emise spiritum_, "And He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."
The north porch of the Creizker is beautifully sculptured with leaves of
the mallow, the vine, and mulberry. It was all under repair when we saw
it.

[Illustration: 22. The Creizker.]

The cathedral has two fine towers with spires, and a magnificent rose
window of the fifteenth century in the south transept, with, above, the
"fenetre d'excommunication." The fine porch, lightly and delicately
sculptured, is surmounted by a balustrade, whence the episcopal
benediction was given. Over the high altar is a large wooden crosier,
gilt, from which to suspend the ciborium, similar to that we saw in the
cathedral of Dol. A black marble slab, at the foot of the steps of the
high altar, marks the grave of St. Pol de Leon, who died 570. St. Pol, the
patron bishop and founder of the cathedral, was one of the clergy of Great
Britain who emigrated to Brittany in the sixth century; he landed in the
island of Ouessant, and passed on to the country of Leon, where he founded
a monastery.