Here we shall remark arches in the Gothic style, supported by thick
pillars, according to the architecture of that period. Ornaments, in
the form of _culs-de-lampe_, terminate the centre of the arches,
which are painted in azure-blue, and charged with stars. When temples
were begun to be sheltered or covered, nations painted the inside of
the roof in this manner, in order to keep in view the image of the
celestial canopy to which they directed all their affections, and to
preserve the memory of the ancient custom of offering up sacrifices
to the divinity in the open air.
Here the statue of LEWIS IX, surnamed the Saint, is placed near that
of PHILIP, one of his sons, and of CHARLES, his brother, king of
Sicily, branded in history, by having, through his oppression, driven
his subjects into revolt, and caused the massacre of the French in
that island in 1277; a massacre well known by the name of the
_Sicilian vespers_.
It seems that it was the fashion, in those days, for kings themselves
to be bearers at funerals. We are told by St. Foix, that the body of
LEWIS, another son of the Saint, who died in 1662, aged 26, and whose
cenotaph is here, was first carried to St. Denis, and thence to the
abbey of Royaumont, where it was interred. "The greatest lords of the
kingdom," says he, "alternately bore the coffin on their shoulders,
and Henry III; king of England, carried it himself for a considerable
time, as feudatory of the crown."
PHILIP III, too, above-mentioned, having brought to Paris the remains
of his father from Tunis in Africa, carried them barefooted, on his
shoulders, to St. Denis. Wherever he rested by the way, towers were
erected in commemoration of this act of filial piety; but these have
been destroyed since the revolution.
The casements of this hall, in the form of ogives, are ornamented
with stained glass of the first epoch of the invention of that art.
We now come to the