The Churches of Paris Part 21

[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO OF THE ALTO-RELIEVOS WHICH SURROUND THE CHOIR.]

The alto-reliefs alluded to above, by Jean Ravy and Jean le Bouteiller, are supported upon an arcade of cl.u.s.tered columns and pointed arches fixed against the back of the stalls. Formerly they were continued across the _jube_ and all around the choir; but unfortunately, when the sanctuary gates were constructed, these sculptures were sacrificed. The subjects are: 1, the Visitation; 2, the Appearance of the Star of Bethlehem to the Shepherds; 3, the Nativity; 4, the Adoration of the Magi; 5, the Ma.s.sacre of the Innocents; 6, the Flight into Egypt; 7, the Presentation in the Temple; 8, Christ disputing with the Doctors; 9, the Baptism of Christ; 10, the Marriage in Cana; 11, the Entry into Jerusalem; 12, the Last Supper; 13, Christ was.h.i.+ng S. Peter's Feet; 14, the Mount of Olives, The mysteries of the Pa.s.sion and Resurrection were on the _jube_, the destruction of which we owe to the Cardinal de Noailles. On the South side the subjects are of later date (14th century): 1, Christ appearing to the Magdalen; 2, to the Three Maries; 3, the Apostles running to the Sepulchre; 4, the Journey to Emmaus; 5, Christ appearing to the Disciples; 6, to S. Thomas; 7, to S. Peter on the Sea of Tiberias; 8, another Appearance to the Disciples; 9, the Charge to preach the Gospel in all Lands. Jean Ravy was represented kneeling with joined hands in the last of these alto-reliefs. The whole was finished by Jean le Bouteiller in 1351; and it is recorded that a part was a votive offering in honour of G.o.d, of the Virgin Mary, and of Monseigneur S. etienne, given by Guillaume de Melun, Archbishop of Sens--one of two bishops of the name who occupied the see in 1317-29 and 1344-96 respectively. The sculptures are all coloured and gilt, and a very good cast of them may be seen at the Crystal Palace.

The choir remained intact until 1638, when Louis XIII., putting his kingdom especially under the protection of the Blessed Virgin, registered that unfortunate vow that he would consecrate the sanctuary of Notre-Dame to the fulfilment of it. "_Afin que la posterite ne puisse manquer a suivre nos volontes a ce sujet, pour monument et marque incontestable de la consecration presente que nous faisons, nous ferons construire de nouveau le grand autel de l'eglise cathedrale de Paris, avec une image de la Vierge qui tienne entre ses bras celle de son precieux fils, descendu de la croix, et ou nous serons representes aux pieds du fils et de la mere, comme leur offrant notre couronne et notre sceptre._" Louis XIII. died in 1643, before he was able to carry out his marvellous design; but unfortunately, his son, Louis XIV., was only too ready to embellish buildings in the miserable taste of his time, and so the altar is disfigured by a _Descent from the Cross_ by Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou, and a pair of kneeling kings (the 13th and 14th Louis) by Coysevox. In themselves these sculptures are fine examples of the art of the period, but they and the eight bronze Angels by Cayot, Vancleve, Poirier, Hurtrelle, Nagnier and Anselme Flamen, are all equally out of place in a 13th century church. The bas-reliefs of the altar were by Va.s.se, and Du Goulon was the sculptor of the beautiful woodwork representing scenes from the life of the Virgin. The altar was destroyed in 1793, in order to erect a symbolic "_montagne_" upon "_les pompeux debris de l'antique imposture_." The present one was reconstructed in 1803, _the Entombment_, in gilt copper, from designs by Vancleve, being conveyed from the chapelle des Louvois, in the old church of the Capuchins in the Place Vendome. The cross and candelabra belonged to the cathedral of Arras before the Revolution; and the beautiful bronze lectern, as exquisite in design as in workmans.h.i.+p, is signed and dated, "Duplessis 1775." The statue of the Virgin, on a pillar at the entrance of the choir, had the reputation of working miracles. It was thrown down at the Revolution, but was found later at S. Denis and replaced in Notre-Dame. Such is the history of the statue, but whether it is the identical figure, it is impossible to say. In any case it is mainly of the same date as the church, which cannot be said of the reliquaries in the treasury, that are also supposed to have survived the Revolution.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PART OF THE STALLS.]

The choir is raised three steps above the transepts. The two arches which separate the side aisles from the crossings show evidences of a later style. As we have seen, many sculptures were saved by the deputy Chaumette, and by Alexandre Lenoir, as works of art worthy of preservation; but unfortunately, reliquaries were of more value as metal, and most of them pa.s.sed through the melting-pot into coinage for the bankrupt National treasury. The reliquaries shown at the cathedral are mostly modern imitations of those which were formerly in the Ste.

Chapelle. One, however, is said to be the veritable _Croix Palatine_.

This is a double-armed gold cross of Byzantine workmans.h.i.+p, formerly belonging to S. Germain-des-Pres, to which church it was left in 1684 by Anne of Cleves, princess of Mantua and of Montferrat, widow of Edouard von Baiern. The prince received it from Jean Casimir, King of Poland, when he took refuge in France; it having been given to a King of Poland in the 12th century by Manuel Comnenus, Emperor of Constantinople. The princess and her daughter, the d.u.c.h.ess of Brunswick, attested to having seen the cross upon one occasion encircled by flames and coming out of the fire unhurt. In 1793 the const.i.tutional _cure_ took the cross and preserved it until his death in 1827, when he remitted it to the archbishop of Paris. The inscription is in Greek and covers the length and the two arms: _Jesus Christus cruci affixus qui exaltavit hominum naturum, scribit Comnenus Manuel coronatus._ The following are some of the enormous number of valuables which formerly filled the treasury. In the inventory of 1763 there were no less than four busts and two statues in gold, silver-gilt, and jewelled; six silver reliquaries, two of gold, and five of silver-gilt; a gold cross attributed to S. Eloi, six silver-gilt crosses, and a whole closet full of silver candlesticks; besides a number of chalices, patens, ciborium, pax, censers, cruets, and other vessels for the altar; but very few were anterior to the 16th century. Of these the following remain: the Holy Crown from the S.

Chapelle (imitation); the Holy Nail from S. Denis, given to Charlemagne by Constantine V., placed in the treasury of Aix-la-Chapelle, whence it was carried by Charles le Chauve to France; the golden cross of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus, 12th century, which was bequeathed by the Princess Anne de Gonzague to the monks of S. Germain des Pres in 1683;[115] two silver-gilt chalices of the 13th century; the relic of the True Cross sent in 1109 to Galon, bishop of Paris, by Anseau, precentor of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem;[116] the crozier of Bishop Elides de Sully, of wood and copper; the crucifix belonging to S. Vincent de Paul, which he presented to Louis XIII. upon his death-bed; the "discipline" of S. Louis; portions of this king's raiment; and the _soutanes_ of archbishops Affre, Sibour, and Darboy.

The high altar as originally arranged had bra.s.s bars at the sides from which hung draperies. Behind it was another altar, that of the Holy Trinity, or _les ardents_ raised so that it could be seen above the first one. Steps led up to this, and between them was a depository called the _conditoire_, where all the sacred vessels used at ma.s.s were kept. There was no tabernacle; as in most churches in the old times, the host was enclosed in a ciborium which hung in front of the altar. A figure in alabaster of the Virgin surmounted the _autel des ardents_.

Above all were three rows of _cha.s.ses_, one above the other, as it were upon shelves, containing relics of S. Gendulphe, S. Severin, S. Germain, bishop of Paris, S. Justin, S. Lucain, S. Ursula's young friends, and other martyrs. The reliquary of S. Marcel was behind the high altar, resplendent in gold and pearls and precious stones, an elaborate and beautiful work of art, by, said tradition, S. eloi, the bishop of Noyon; but unfortunately, it was too valuable to escape the melting-pot, and its 436 marcs worth of gold found their way into coin of the Republic.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STEPS IN THE LITTLE CLOISTER.]

The church was rich in gla.s.s up to the year 1741, when a demon in human shape, one Levieil, the author of a treatise upon the art of gla.s.s-painting, set to work to re-adorn Notre-Dame. He describes the matter himself; what he found and what he transformed. In the choir and the apse the windows were ornamented with colossal figures 18 ft. high, representing bishops, vested and bearing pastoral staves, without the usual crook termination. A border of lozenge-shapen coloured gla.s.s framed the figures and filled up the divisions of the compartments.

These windows Levieil dated no later than 1182, and he adds that there were many fragments of much older gla.s.s, probably emanating from the ancient basilicas, which preceded the present church, interspersed between the _grisaille_ of the 12th century. In the tribune of the choir were windows given by a little personage whose effigy knelt at the bottom of one, Michel de Darency by name, chaplain of Saint-Ferreol, who died in 1358. The abbot Suger also gave some of the gla.s.s in the tribune, resembling that of his own church, S. Denis, which is so rich in resplendent sapphire blue. In some of the chapels were subjects such as _the Beheading of S. John Baptist_, a king and queen, possibly Philippe le Bel and Jeanne de Navarre, kneeling. All this, or most of it, was improved away, or re-arranged into floriated borders and armorial bearings upon white gla.s.s. A little remains of the 14th century: some small Angels holding the instruments of the Pa.s.sion, a Pelican and its chicks, a Christ draped in red, and a little figure of the Virgin. This is all in the _chevet_. But the glory of the church is the gla.s.s of the rose-windows, which continue the subjects portrayed upon the sculpture of the doors over which they are placed. In the western rose the Virgin is in the central compartment, crowned and bearing a sceptre; on her left arm is the infant Christ giving the benediction. The twelve prophets surround her, and we see again the Signs of the Zodiac, and the work special to each month during the year.

Virtues and Vices, Judges, Priests, Prophets, and Kings of Judah; Saints and Martyrs with the instruments of their martyrdom, or palms, decorate these exquisite windows, masterpieces of the art; equal to the windows of Metz and Strasburg, and contemporary with the stone walls which surround them.

Formerly the pavement was a ma.s.s of tombstones, erect or prostrate, bearing portraits of the defunct in bra.s.s or marble; but Louis XIV.'s architects thought well to improve many of them away, and subst.i.tute a marble pavement costing 300,000 francs. Many bra.s.s tombs had been melted up with the lectern some years previously. Among the celebrities who had formerly either effigies or epitaphs in the choir were the following.

Princes and Princesses: Philippe, Archdeacon of Paris, son of Louis VI., 1161; Geoffroy, duc de Bretagne, son of Henry II. of England, 1186; Isabelle de Hainault, first wife of Philippe-Auguste, 1189; Louis, dauphin, son of Charles VI., 1415; Louise de Savoie, mother of Francois I^{er.}, 1531 (only her heart was buried here); Louis XIII., 1643.

Bishops of Paris: Eudes de Sully, 1208; etienne II., called Tempier, 1279; Cardinal Aymeric de Magnac, 1384; Pierre d'Orgemont, 1409; Denis Dumoulin, patriarch of Antioch, 1447. Archbishops of Paris: Pierre de Marca, 1662; Hardouin de Perefixe, 1671; Francois de Harlay, 1695; and an archbishop of Sens, who was also High Almoner of France, Renaud de Beaune, who died in 1616.

The few statues which are now in the church are modern: the marble monument by Pigalle, of the Comte d'Harcourt; of Cardinal de Belloy giving alms to a woman and child, by Deseine; and those of the three murdered archbishops, Sibour, Affre, and Darboy, who are buried in the crypt. The epitaph of Monseigneur Affre is as follows: _Le bon pasteur donne sa vie pour ses brebis.... Que mon sang soit le dernier verse._

[Ill.u.s.tration: GARGOYLES.]

The bells of Notre-Dame were justly celebrated; but of the thirteen which were formerly in the towers, only one remains, the great _bourdon_, heard all over the city on great occasions; as, for instance, on Holy Sat.u.r.day, when at High Ma.s.s, during the _Gloria_, it peals forth, giving the signal for all the other church bells to break their forty-eight hours' silence. It was given by Jean de Montaigu[117] in 1400, who named it Jacqueline, after his wife Jacqueline de La Grange; and in 1686 it was refoundered and re-baptised--Emmanuel-Louise-Therese, in honour of Louis XIV. and Marie-Therese of Austria.

The exterior decoration of Notre-Dame is very rich. Gargoyles, monsters of the most grotesque type, called also _tarasques_ and _magots_, are there, encircling the towers, and disputing their importance with the Angel of the Judgment. The monsters stand, as they did centuries ago, gazing down upon Paris and its doings for good or for evil. Think of the events they have witnessed from the burning of fifty-four Templars in a slow fire by Philippe IV., to the horrors of the Commune. They must have seen the flaming villages and _chateaux_ during the Jacquerie, and witnessed those useless _sorties_ during the last war, when the Parisians vainly endeavoured to escape from the city and gain one of the outside army corps. They seem to look down in scorn upon humanity, whether in the form of the coronation of Henry VI. of England, so mean an affair that "un bourgeois qui marierait ses enfants ferait mieux les choses," or the misery of the famine of 1419-21. "Vous auriez entendu dans tout Paris des lamentations pitoyables, des pet.i.ts enfants qui criaient, 'Je meurs de faim.' On voyait sur un fumier 20-30 enfants garcons, filles, qui rendaient l'ame de faim et de froid. On enterrait 100,000 personnes. Des bandes de loups courraient les campagnes et entraient meme la nuit dans Paris pour enlever les cadavres." And all the ages through, the brutes have had the same expression of scorn, of spite, of diabolical ugliness, that one feels it to be a comfort that they are fixed safely to the gallery of the towers, out of the way of working mischief.

Amongst the great ceremonies which have taken place in the cathedral are: The marriage of Marie Stuart with Francois II., of France, in 1552; the marriage of Henri of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois upon a platform erected outside the great porch, to prevent Protestant contamination of the church. This was upon the eve of S. Bartholomew, the 18th August, just six days before the great work of ma.s.sacre on the 24th. The coronation of Napoleon by Pope Pius VII., in 1804; the marriage of the Duc du Berry, and the baptism of the Duc du Bordeaux (Comte de Chambord) in 1816; the funeral of the Duc d'Orleans, son of Louis Philippe, in 1853; the marriage of Louis-Napoleon in 1853; the baptism of his son in 1857, and a certain number of episcopal consecrations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DEMON WATCHING THE FIRES OF THE COMMUNE.]

There was a great procession organized in 1590, during the siege of Paris by Henri IV. Sermons were preached against "Le Bearnais," the clergy took up arms, and the pope's legate promised the palm of martyrdom to all who fell in the holy cause. The day after the first a.s.sault, the procession took place. The princ.i.p.al heroes of the League, after shaving head and face, marched first, vested in "_camail and rochet_," and bearing sword and "_partisan_." Then came a number of monks in order of battle, shouldering their axes and arquebuses, "dans un accoutrement moitie religieux et moitie militaire qui avait quelque chose de burlesque et de terrible a la fois. L'Eglise militante chantant des hymnes entremelees de salves de mousqueterie. Ils defilerent devant le legat, qui les traita de vrais Machabees; pour que quelques-uns meriterent a la defense des remparts." But it did not save them from starvation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOTRE-DAME BY MOONLIGHT.]

There was at one time a ma.s.s said for the idle at "la plus haute heure du matin. Ainsi qu'en d'aucunes paroisses de Paris, il y a la messe d'unze heures." This was suppressed in 1722 by the Cardinal de Noailles, archbishop of Paris. It was founded by the kindly regular canon, Jean Le Moyne, and its revenues were applied to the _beneficiers machicots_ and _clercs du matins_. The _machicots_ were officers of the church of Notre-Dame inferior to the _beneficiers_, and superior to the simple wage-singers. The word _machicotage_ "se dit de certaines additions des notes, suivant une merche diatonique avec lesquelles on remplessait dans le plain chant les intervalles du tierces et autres." A number of corona hang from the vault, and in the crossing of the transepts is a huge one recalling that of Hildesheim. When lighted during the services of Holy Week, just giving a gentle diffused glimmer, the effect is very fine; never, indeed, are these great churches so grand as at the evening services. The ma.s.s of men sitting in the nave (it is reserved for them), the deep roar of their voices as they sing the _Miserere_, the intense silence during the eloquent discourses of Pere Monsabre or some other Dominican, the procession, dimly lighted, of old canons in every stage of decrepitude, the small boys, followed by a crowd of the most unharmonious specimens of humanity, carrying tapers, are elements forming a picture which is uniquely picturesque. In the old days before the war, the graceful, sweet-expressioned archbishop, bending to this side and that, while the faithful kissed his episcopal ring and received his blessing, added to the beauty of the scene. Had we known what was in store for him, it would have added also to the pathos.

NOTRE-DAME DE L'a.s.sOMPTION.

This building may be described as a dome and a portico, built from 1670 to 1676, by Charles Erard, director of the Academy of France at Rome, and decorated by Charles de la Fosse. The cupola is graceful, and if it were as well decorated as the Allerheiligen church of the palace at Munchen, or the Apollinarus-Kirche at Remagen on the Rhine, it would be an imposing edifice; as it is, it seems under a cloud, and is only used as a _succursale_ or _dependance_ of the Madeleine. It belonged to the convent of Augustinian nuns, now turned into barracks, but still showing a few remains of the cloister. It is strange that no one in these days should desire to build a round church under a dome ablaze with mosaic decoration. It might have a sanctuary as at Aix-la-Chapelle for the Divine offices, with a pulpit in the dome, which would have the advantage of being placed so that all the congregation could see the preacher. I am thinking at this moment of the beautiful Russian church in Paris, which is gorgeous with colour and gilding. Such a building upon a large scale, built in the sumptuous style of the Brompton Oratory, of marbles and mosaic, and in the form of the church of the a.s.sumption, would be a refres.h.i.+ng change from red brick and Doulton tiles, which seem to be inseparately mixed up with elaborate ritual, and are as infallibly correct as clothing for an Anglo-Catholic service as is chocolate colour for dressing up _pseudo_-Grecian temples surmounted by pepper-box turrets, which delighted the architects at the beginning of this styleless century.

NOTRE-DAME DE L'ABBAYE AUX BOIS.

If I say that the little church and cloister, which are all that remain of a monastery of Cistercian nuns, built in 1718, are situated in the Rue de Sevres, hard by the Bon Marche, my readers will immediately picture their whereabouts. At the beginning of this century, the Abbaye became a genteel boarding-house for fas.h.i.+onable ladies who played at being weary of the world; but, although they retired into a monastic building, their _monde_ followed them; and thus we find Madame Recamier receiving her admirers in her cloistered _salon_, and listening to their philosophical sophistries while she elegantly reclines upon a satin sofa with straight legs and curling arms.

NOTRE-DAME DES BLANCS-MANTEAUX.

When the white-mantled religious, the servants of Mary, came to Paris about the year 1258, they set up housekeeping in the street which is now named after them, the Rue des Blancs-Manteaux. Everyone who has been to Florence knows the chapel of the Annunziata, where during ma.s.s one day, the general of the Servites, Filippo Benozzi, saw a vision of the Virgin sitting in a chariot, and heard her voice calling upon him to draw near, and join himself to her servants, who, some fifteen years earlier, had banded themselves together. There were seven of them, all of n.o.ble family, and they gained their name from their especial devotion to the Virgin. As they wandered out to the church of the Annunciation to sing their _Angelus_, the women and children used to point at them and cry out, "_Guardate i Servi di Maria_"; and so, when they formed themselves into a community, they became known as the "Servi" or "Serviti." Benozzi was a medicine man of benevolent disposition, who, tired of witnessing suffering (perhaps of operations performed without anaesthetics), gave up his work, and retired, like another S. Benedict, to Monte Senario. His power in smoothing down the ruffled-up backs of the Tuscans in their many family squabbles was so great that he became a renowned moral healer; and in 1285, when he died, his order was flouris.h.i.+ng all over Italy and France. It was soon after his beatification, about 1671, that Andrea del Sarto was called upon to decorate part of the cloisters of the Annunziata; and, as a result, we have the lovely Madonna del Sacco.

At the end of the 13th century the hermits of Saint-Guillaume replaced the Servites at the monastery of the Blancs-Manteaux, and in 1618 the house was united to the Reformed Benedictines who erected a new church.

The habit of the monks was then changed to black, but as the name of Blancs-Manteaux was still retained, the people called the fathers _les mal nommes_. The conventual buildings are now occupied by the Mont-de-Piete, another kind of service of the poor, in the shape of official and honest p.a.w.nbroking. If anyone wishes to study character, let him go into the great hall, and look at those rows and rows of physiognomies sitting upon the benches awaiting their turn to be served.

Young, old, poor, and, apparently, rich, all go there for loans upon their goods; and you may pile upon the mountain anything you like, from a bundle of rags to a diamond b.u.t.terfly.

NOTRE-DAME DES CHAMPS.

Legendary history records an a.s.semblage of the first Christians of Lutetia in the fields where now runs the Rue S. Jacques, listening to the preaching of S. Denis, and strengthening themselves against the persecution which loomed in the distance. And legend further relates that a chapel was built upon this spot. But leaving the realms of tradition, we find an authentic account of a church in the 8th century which, in the next hundred years, was served by the Benedictine monks of Marmoutier. This remained the headquarters of a priory for about six hundred years. In 1604, Cardinal Berulle introduced the Carmelite order as reformed by S. Theresa, and the nuns began to rebuild. The church they left intact with its 13th century porch, and its great statues of S. Denis, Moses, Aaron, David, and Solomon. This building disappeared, and a modern one arose in its stead, more to the West; but the crypt is supposed to be under the level of the street; and according to the abbe Lebuf, a second subterraneous burial-ground of Gallo-Roman origin was discovered still lower down, with fragments of tombstones, slabs, pottery, and the like. The present church contains a few _debris_ of its former grandeur, a statue by Sarazin, of Cardinal de Berulle, being the princ.i.p.al one.

The monastery was celebrated, during the 17th century, as the asylum of many distinguished ladies who sought a refuge from their troubles; amongst others, of the blessed Sur Louise de la Misericorde, who died there in 1710, in the odour of sanct.i.ty. In her mundane career this _Madeleine da la Cour_ was Mdlle. de la Valliere, and she is said to have posed to Le Brun for his terrible picture of _La Madeleine penitente renonce a toutes les vanites de la vie_, which was painted for M. de Camus as an adornment of this Carmelite church. It is now in the Louvre, which it in nowise adorns. Lebrun, as a decorative artist, painting allegories and battles, is bearable; but his religious pictures are only gross exaggerations of the Italian Eclectics. This Madeleine de la Valliere is in a tortuous state of agony at the thought of the vanities she enjoyed. With eyes turned up, with her flowing locks, and swathed in rich satin garments, which are blown by a gust of wind coming in at the open cas.e.m.e.nt on the top of a cloud, she looks thunder-struck; it is astonishment at the discovery of her sinfulness, revealed by the heavens opening, and the Divine voice addressing her. Surely the moderns, the Berauds, the Lhermites, the Dagnan-Bouverets, Uhde, Hitchc.o.c.k, Pierce, and their followers, have far more religious feeling, although they clothe their personages as Parisian workpeople, and paint their Madeleines, like Henner, in the pastures (apparently) of the Bois de Boulogne--backgrounds, considering the subject, not altogether inappropriate.

NOTRE-DAME DE LORETTE.

An utterly uninteresting exterior encloses some good mural paintings by Orsel, Perin, and Roger. The church was completed in 1836 by Lebas, and were the weather always bright, the interior would not fail to impress the visitor; but it is too dark for a Northern clime, and it is therefore difficult fully to appreciate the frescoes. That over the altar is by Picot; the subjects from the life of the Virgin are by Dubois, Langlois, Vinchon, and Hesse; the choir is the work of Delorme; _the Presentation in the Temple_, and _Christ disputing with the Doctors_, are by Heim and Drolling. They are all inspired by a reverent feeling for the subjects, and are resplendent with gold.

NOTRE-DAME DES VICTOIRES.

Louis XIII. laid the first stone of this church in 1629, and dedicated it to Our Lady of Victory, in memory of the famous battle of La Roch.e.l.le. It was part of the convent of barefooted Augustins, who were nicknamed the Little Fathers, by Henri IV., on account of the diminutive stature of some of the friars, and consequently the church was as often called Notre-Dame des Pet.i.ts Peres as Notre-Dame des Victoires. Pierre Lemut was its original architect; and before it was completed, in 1740, by Cartaud, two other architects, Liberal Bruant and Gabriel Leduc, lent their aid. The cupola is decorated with an a.s.sumption; pictures by Vanloo adorn the choir, and other chapels contain some by Perrault.

Those by Vanloo represent the thanksgiving of the King and the Cardinal for the mighty victory aforesaid, the taking of La Roch.e.l.le. But the interest of, or the objections to, the church, according to the point of view from which we start, consists in the innumerable _ex-voto_ tablets which cover the walls, and proclaim the answers to prayers by mothers, wives, husbands, sons, fathers, and daughters. They are emblems of the faith which saves. But would not the same earnest prayers, put up on other spots, produce the same results? Is it not a narrow notion that we are more likely to be heard in the Place des Victoires than in the Halles? Such is not the view of the _devots_ and _devotes_, as the statue of the Virgin proclaims, for it is hung all over with costly jewels and ornaments; and whatever time of the day we may enter the church, we find it almost filled with troubled souls who come to gain an indulgence at its privileged altars, which are to those of a different sort of mind examples of what to avoid. For those persons having leanings to superst.i.tion, let me commend this church as an antidote; to others, it is neither aesthetically interesting nor, from a religious point of view, particularly edifying. To musicians it has one attraction, as being the burial-place of Jean-Baptiste Lulli, the charming fiddler, who died in 1687, and whose bronze statue by Cotton is in the transept.