have been
traced: Thomas Le Vasseur, who assisted him in the building of the new
spire, and one Sieur Bernier, whose name occurs in ancient accounts;
that from some old contracts, discovered by Monsieur Lecoq, we know that
Jehan Soulas, image-maker, of Paris, carved the finest of the groups
that are the glory of the choir-aisles, and can verify the names of
other sculptors who succeeded this admirable artist, but who are less
interesting, since with them pagan art reappears and mediocrity is
evident: Francois Marchant, image-maker, of Orleans, and Nicolas
Guybert, of Chartres--we have mentioned almost all the records worthy of
preservation as to the great artists who laboured at Chartres from the
twelfth till the close of the first half of the fifteenth century."

"And after that period the names that have been handed down to us
deserve nothing but execration. Thomas Boudin, Legros, Jean de Dieu,
Berruer, Tuby, Simon Mazieres--these were the men that dared to carry on
the work begun by Soulas! Louis, the Duc d'Orleans' architect, who
debased and ravaged the choir, and the infamous Bridan, who, to the
contemptible delight of some of the Canons, erected his blatant and
wretched presentment of the Assumption!"

"Alas!" said the Abbe Gevresin, "and they were Canons who thought fit to
break two ancient windows in the choir and fill them with white panes,
the better to light that group of Bridan's!"

"Will you eat nothing more?" asked Madame Bavoil, who, at a negative
from the guests, cleared away the cheese and preserves, and brought in
coffee.

"Since you are so much charmed by our Cathedral, I shall be most happy
to take you over it and explain its details," said the Abbe Plomb to
Durtal.

"I shall accept with pleasure, Monsieur l'Abbe, for it fairly haunts me,
it possesses me--your Notre Dame! You know, no doubt, Quicherat's
theories of Gothic art?"

"Yes, and I believe them to be correct. Like him, I am convinced that if
the essential character of the Romanesque is the substitution of the
vaulted roof for the truss, the distinctive element and principle of the
Gothic is the buttress, and not the pointed arch.

"I reserve my opinion, indeed, as to the accuracy of Quicherat's
declaration that 'the history of architecture in the middle ages is no
more than the history of the struggle of architects against the thrust
and weight of vaulting,' for there is something in this art beyond
material industry and a problem