man, etc. Those to the right give the story of Genesis, Cain and Abel, the
Flood, the Ark, Noah's Sacrifice, Noah's Vine, etc., the subjects of all
which the visitor can easily recognize, and is strongly recommended to
identify for himself.

The interior consists almost entirely of large and lofty windows, with
magnificent stained glass, in large part ancient. The piers which divide
the windows and alone support the graceful vault of the roof, are provided
with statues of the twelve apostles, a few of them original. Each bears
his well-known symbol. Spell them out if possible. Beneath the windows, in
the quatrefoils of the arcade, are enamelled glass mosaics representing
the martyrdoms of the saints--followers of Christ, each wearing his own
crown of thorns: a pretty conceit wholly in accord with St. Louis's
ecstatic type of piety. Conspicuous among them are St. Denis carrying his
head, St. Sebastian pierced with arrows, St. Stephen stoned, St. Lawrence
on his gridiron, etc. The apse (formerly separated from the body of the
building by a rood-screen, now destroyed), contains the vacant base of the
high altar, behind which stands an arcaded tabernacle, now empty, in whose
shrine were once preserved the Crown of Thorns, the fragment of the True
Cross, and other relics.

Among them in the later times was included the skull of St. Louis himself
in a golden reliquary. Two angels at the summit of the large center arch
of the arcade bear a representation of the Crown of Thorns in their hands.
Above the tabernacle rises a canopy or baldacchino, approached by two
spiral staircases; from its platform St. Louis and his successors, the
kings of France, were in the habit of exhibiting with their own hands the
actual relics themselves once a year to the faithful. The golden reliquary
in which the sacred objects were contained was melted down in the
Revolution. The small window with bars to your right, as you face the high