n a common
grave. In 1817 Louis XVIII. caused the remains of his ancestors, as well
as Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, to be transferred here from the
Madeleine, and in turn he himself was buried here, as well as the Duc de
Berry and several of his children. The preservation of such of the tombs
as survived the many vicissitudes to which they were put, is due to the
fact that many of them were at one time removed to the Musee des
Petits-Augustines, now the Palace des Beaux Arts, at Paris; but in 1817
Louis XVIII. ordered them to be replaced in the crypt of St. Denis; not,
however, on the sites which they formerly occupied, but in an arbitrary
manner which only the great abilities of M. Viollet-le-Duc, who
undertook their rearrangement and restoration, were able to present in
some coherent manner for the marvel of future generations. There are now
therein over fifty monuments and tombs, besides various statues,
medallions, and other memorials.

From an architectural point of view, we have to consider the _Basilique
de St. Denis_ no longer a cathedral, as one of the earliest Gothic
examples in France, though at first glance little enough of the true
Gothic feeling is apparent. About the year 275 a chapel was built here
above the grave of St. Dionysius, the first Bishop of Paris. This was
followed by a large _basilica_, ultimately given over to the uses of
monks of the Benedictine order. Evidences of this former construction
are supposed by archaeologists to still remain, but little, earlier than
the structure of the Abbe Suger, meets the eye to-day. Strong is the
trace of the development from the Romanesque facade, completed in 1140,
to pure Gothic construction of a century later. In this church is
commonly supposed to be exhibited for the first time, bearing in mind
that the date of its consecration was 1144, a complete system of
buttresses accompanying the pointed arch of the vaulting, though in
conjunction with semicircular vaulting in the choir aisles.

The west facade is the most notable part of Suger's building. It
contains three deeply recessed round arched portals, decorated with
sculpture, but so disfigured, or at least modified from their original
forms in an attempt to replace the ravages of time and spoliation, that
one can not well judge of their original merit. The south portal shows
symbolical figures of the months and of "St. Dionysius in Prison;" the
central doorway a "Last Judgment," and the "Wise and