d. The lantern at the crossing
supports the ironwork spire, and admits light to the centre of the
church, only to a small degree, however. The south transept, like that
of the north, with its ample double aisles, is of great width, and, were
the framing of the great rose window of less angularity, it would indeed
produce a remarkable effect of grandeur. The other windows, and the
arcading of the triforium, are singularly graceful; not lacking either
strength or firmness, though having no glass of great rarity or
excellence. In this transept is the altar of St. Romain, a
seventeenth-century work of little pretensions.

The north transept contains two features which give it immediate
precedence over any other, when viewed from within: its gracefully
traceried rose window and fine glass, and the delightful stone staircase
leading to the chapter library. Mere description cannot do this stairway
justice. Renaissance it certainly is, and where we might wish to find
nothing but Gothic ornament, it may prove somewhat of a disappointment;
but it is magnificent. Its white marble balustrading gleams in the
strong light thrown from the western transept window and gives an
unmistakable note of richness and sonority. It was built late in the
fifteenth century under orders of Cardinal d'Estonteville. The upper
doorway leads to the treasury, and that of the first landing to the
chamber in which were formerly kept the bibliographical treasures, now
housed in the special building which forms the western wall of the
outside court.

The north and south aisles of the nave are broken into by a series of
chapels, the chief of which are the Chapel to St. Stephen in the base of
the _Tour de Beurre_ and _du Petit St. Romain_, where an abbe or cure
speaking the English tongue is often to be found. On the south side is a
chapel containing the tomb of William Longsword, second Duke of
Normandy, and son of Rollo.

The great attraction of the choir, far more than its beauties of
architectural forms, shown in its graceful columns and deep graven
capitals, will be, for most visitors, its array of elaborate monuments,
including those of Pierre and Louis de Breze, of whom the former, the
Grand Seneschal of Normandy under Charles VII., fell at Monthery, and
was buried here in 1465. More pretentious is the tomb of Louis, his
grandson, erected by his wife Diane de Poitiers, with a significant
inscription which the curious may be pleased to figure out for