sion of the Archbishop Alberic de Humbert.
The choir, begun within two years of the fire, made such progress as to
allow of the high altar being ceremoniously dedicated within three
years; and, before the middle of the century, the records tell us that
the main body of the church was entirely completed. The right tower was
uncompleted at this time, but was finished by Cardinal Philastre in
1430, up to which time intermittent labour had evolved a superlative
combination of constructive and decorative excellencies. The extreme
lightness of the west front is brought more and more to impress itself
upon one by reason of the consistent disposition of the excellency and
delicacy of its sculptured ornament.

This western front, from the grand portals upward, is the _apogee_ of
French Gothic ornament,--at once the admiration and boast of all France.
Here is no mixture or confusion of style, in design or decoration. The
pointed arches of window and doorway are of the accepted "best manner,"
the heavy detail is placed low and rises gracefully to the "Gallery of
Kings," a grand succession of stone effigies of royalties from Clovis to
Charles VII., a decorative arrangement not made use of elsewhere to
anything like a similar extent, a fact which of itself stamps the
cathedral as the royal church of France. Conceived by one Gaucher, the
portals are not only superior to all others in richness, depth, and
quality of the sculpture shown in the hundreds of figures with which
they are peopled, but are of exceedingly true and appropriate
dimensions, taken in relation with the other parts of their setting.
Immediately above the gable of the central portal is a wonderful rose
window, of the spoke variety, containing thirty-four sections,--of
immense size and nearly forty feet across. This "most perfect rose,"
designed by Bernard de Soissons, may well be credited as one of the
masterworks of architectural decoration in all the world. Flanking this
great window on either side are two open lancet arches, while above is
the "Gallery of Kings" before mentioned. The twin mullioned towers on
either side rise for two hundred and sixty-seven feet. Light and airy,
they depend for their effect of grace and symmetry entirely upon
structural design, lacking sculptured ornament of any kind. Formerly
they possessed spires of a great height, which, however, were destroyed
by fire in the fifteenth century.

"Were all its original attributes complete," says