its needle-pointed
spires overtopping a crooked street which rises sharply from the river.
There is but one portal, and that is centred with a curious Romanesque
arch half-way across its height, above which is a bas-relief of great
size. The sculpture of this portal, while not as excellent as that seen
in the Isle of France, is of an unusual richness and execution. The next
range is unique among west fronts, being a large central window, but
slightly pointed and little removed from the Romanesque. It is bare of
coloured glass, and is decidedly not an attractive feature. On each side
of this great window are a series of blunt pointed lancets, which form a
sort of arcade which otherwise relieves the bareness which would exist.
Immediately above is a row of niches which hold eight armour-clad
knights of the fifteenth century, inferior perhaps, in execution, to the
sculpture of the portal, but producing an effect, when viewed from the
ground, undeniably fine. It is a detail as interesting, in its way, as
the long "Gallery of the Kings" at Reims. Above rise the slim spires,
with an octagonal cupola superimposed over a central structure, which
looks to this day as though it were originally intended as one of a
battery of three uniform spires. The general plan of this facade is the
masterpiece of design of the building, and, except for the ludicrously
diminutive clock-face, could withstand nobly the cavil of the most
exacting pedant who ever read or studied architectural forms, solely out
of books. In the immediate foreground falls the before mentioned street
of steps. Many old tumble-down houses have recently been cleared away,
and, at the present writing, the view from this point is one which has
apparently not previously existed, and one which it is to be hoped will
not be marred by the erection of any so-called modern improvements.

The interior fills no accepted formula of architectural expression, save
that it is of the manner common to Anjou, the borderland between the
Gothic aisled and the great and aisle-less southern naves, but it holds
one's interest none the less. Perhaps, after all, it is the quality to
interest, quite as much as that to please, which is the standard by
which one makes estimates and forms opinions. There is a not very long
nor very wide nave and choir, neither with aisles, and both with a
vaulting which gives the appearance of being much lower than it really
is, quite the contrary impression to tha