THE GALLERIES.
"I want to get up upon the towers," said Rollo, "if we can."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "but I want first to go and see the tomb of the
three kings."
"What is that?" asked Rollo.
"I will show you," said Mr. George. So saying, Mr. George led the way,
and Rollo followed, along what is called the _ambulatory_, which is a
broad space that extends all around the head of the cross in the
cathedral churches of Europe, between the screen of the choir on one
side and the ranges of chapels on the other. The ambulatory is usually
very grand and imposing in the effect which it produces on the mind of
the visitor, on account of the immense columns which border it, the
loftiness of the vaulted roof, which forms a sort of sky over it above,
and by the elaborate carvings and sculptures of the screen on one side,
and the gorgeous decorations of the chapels on the other. Then all along
the floor there are sculptured monuments of ancient warriors armed to
the teeth in marble representations of iron and steel, while the walls
are adorned with rich paintings of immense magnitude, representing
scenes in the life of the Savior. There seemed to Mr. George some
incongruity between the reverence evinced for the teachings and example
of Jesus, in the pictures above, and the honor paid to the barbarous
valor of the fighting old barons, in the monuments and effigies which
occupied the pavement below.
At length, at the head of the cross, exactly opposite to the centre of
the high altar, which faced the choir, in the place which seemed to be
the special place of honor, Mr. George pointed to a small, square
enclosure, or sort of projecting closet, which was richly carved and
gilded, and adorned with a variety of ancient inscriptions.
"There," said Mr. George, "that must be the tomb of the three kings.
That is the sepulchre which contains, as they pretend, the skulls of the
three wise men of the east, who came to Bethlehem to worship Jesus the
night on which he was born."
"How came they here?" asked Rollo.
"They were at Milan about six or eight hundred years ago," said Mr.
George, "and they were plundered from the church there by a great
general, and given to the Archbishop of Cologne, and he put them in this
church. They have been here ever since, and they are prized very highly
indeed. They are set round with gold and precious stones, and have the
names of the men marked on them in letters formed of rubies."
"Can we see them?" asked Rollo. As he said this he climbed up upon a
little step, and attempted to look through a gilded grating in the front
of the coffer which contained the rubies.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "but we must pay the sacristan for showing them
to us. We can ask him about them when we come down from the galleries."
"And besides," continued Mr. George, "the guide book says that under the
floor of the church, just in front of the tomb of the three kings, the
heart of Mary de Medicis is buried. That must be the place."
So saying, Mr. George pointed to a large, square flagstone, which looked
somewhat different from the others around it. Rollo gazed a moment at
the stone, and then said,--
"I suppose so; but I don't care much about these things, uncle George.
Let us go up into the towers."
"Very well," said Mr. George, "we will go and see if we can find the
way."
So our travellers went on along the ambulatory, and thence into the
aisles and nave of the church, stopping, however, every few minutes to
gaze at some gorgeously decorated altar, or large and beautiful
painting, or quaint old effigy, or at some monument, or inscription, or
antique and time-worn sculpture. There were a great many other parties
of visitors, consisting of ladies and gentlemen, and sometimes children,
rambling about the church at the same time. Rollo observed, as he passed
these groups, that some were talking French, some German, and some
English. Here and there, too, Rollo passed plain-looking people, dressed
like peasants, who were kneeling before some altar or crucifix, saying
their prayers or counting their beads, and wearing a very devout and
solemn air. Some of these persons took no notice of Mr. George and Rollo
as they passed them; but others would follow them with their eyes,
scrutinizing their dress and appearance very closely until they got by,
though they continued all the time to move their lips and utter
inarticulate murmurings.
"I don't think those girls are attending much to their prayers," said
Rollo.
"I'm afraid the girls in the Protestant churches in America do not
attend to them much better," said Mr. George. "There is a great deal of
time spent in seeing how people are dressed by worshippers in other
churches than the Roman Catholic."
At length Rollo caught a view of the man who had held the plate for a
contribution, at the time when he and Mr. George came in at the church
door. He was walking to and fro, with his plate in his hand, in a
distant portion of the church. Rollo immediately offered to go to him,
and ask how he and Mr. George were to get to the towers. So he left Mr.
George looking at a great painting, and walked off in that direction.
Just before Rollo came to the man, his attention was attracted by a girl
of about twelve or thirteen years of age, who was strolling about the
church at a little distance before him, swinging her bonnet in her hand.
She was very pretty, and her dark eyes shone with a very brilliant, but
somewhat roguish expression. She stopped when she saw Rollo coming, and
eyed him with a mingled look of curiosity and pleasure.
Rollo, observing that this young lady appeared not to be particularly
afraid of him, thought he would accost her.
"Do you speak French?" said he in French, as he was walking slowly by
her. He supposed from her appearance that she was a French girl, and so
he spoke to her in that language.
The girl replied, not in French, but in English,--
"Yes, and English too."
"How did you know that I spoke English?" said Rollo, speaking now in
English himself.
"By your looks," said the girl.
"What is your name?" asked Rollo.
"Tell me your name first," said the girl.
"My name is Rollo," said Rollo.
"And mine," replied the stranger, "is Minnie."
"Do you see that man out there," said Minnie, immediately after telling
her name, "who is gathering the donations? Come and see what a play I
will play him."
Minnie was a French girl, and so, though she had learned English, she
did not speak it quite according to the established usage.
So she walked along towards the contribution man, wearing a very grave
and demure expression of countenance as she went. Rollo kept by her
side. As soon as they came near, the man held out his plate, hoping to
receive a contribution from them. But as the plate already contained
money which had been put in by former contributors, the action was
precisely as if the man were offering money to the children, instead of
asking it of them. So Minnie put forth her hand, and making a courtesy,
took one of the pieces of money that were in the plate, pretending to
suppose that the man meant to give it to her, and said at the same time,
in French,--
"I am very much obliged to you, sir. It is just what I wanted."
The man immediately exclaimed, "_Nein nein!_" which is the German for
No! no! and then went on saying something in a very earnest tone, and
holding out his hand for Minnie to give him back the money. Minnie did
so, and then, looking up at Rollo with a very arch and roguish
expression of countenance, she turned round and skipped away over the
stone pavement, until she was lost from view behind an enormous column.
Rollo saw her afterwards walking about with a gentleman and lady, the
party to which she belonged.
Rollo then asked the man who held the plate what he should do to get up
into the towers. He asked this question in French, and the man replied
in French that he must go "to the Swiss, and the Swiss would give him a
ticket.
"Where shall I find the Swiss?" asked Rollo.
The man pointed to a distant part of the church, where a number of
people were going in through a great iron gateway.
"You will find him there somewhere," said the man, "and you will know
him by his red dress."
[Illustration: MINNIE'S ROGUERY.]
So Rollo went and reported to his uncle George, and they together went
in pursuit of the Swiss. They soon came to the great gate; and just
inside of it they saw a man dressed in a long red gown which came down
to his ankles. This proved to be what they called the Swiss. On making
known to him what they wanted, this man gave them a ticket,--they paying
him the usual fee for it,--and then went and found a guide who was to
show them up into the galleries.
The guide, taking them under his charge, led them outside the church,
and then conducted them to a door leading into a small round tower,
which was built at an angle of the wall. This tower, though small in
size, was as high as the church, and it contained a spiral staircase of
stone, which conducted up into the upper parts of the edifice. Mr.
George and Rollo, however, found that they could not go up to the towers
but only to what were called the galleries. But it proved in the end
that they had quite enough of climbing and of walking along upon dizzy
heights, in visiting these galleries, and Rollo was very willing to come
down again when he had walked round the upper one of them, without
ascending to the towers.
There were three of these galleries. The first was an inner one; that
is, it was inside the church. The two others were outside. The party was
obliged to ascend to a vast height before they reached the first
gallery. This gallery was a very narrow passage, barely wide enough for
one person to walk in, which extended all around the choir, with a solid
wall on one side, and arches through which they could look down into the
church below on the other. After walking along for several hundred feet,
listening to the swelling sounds of the music, which, coming from the
organ and choir below, echoed grandly and solemnly among the vaults and
arches above them, until they reached the centre of the curve at the
head of the cross, Mr. George and Rollo stopped, and leaned over the
stone parapet, and looked down. The parapet was very high and very
thick, and Rollo had to climb up a little upon it before he could see
over.
They gazed for a few minutes in silence, completely overwhelmed with the
dizzy grandeur of the view. It is always impossible to convey by words
any idea of the impression produced upon the mind by looking down from
any great height upon scenes of magnificence or of beauty; but it would
be doubly impossible in such a case as this. Far below them in front,
they could see the choir of singers in the singing gallery, with the
organ behind them. The distance was, however, so great that they could
not distinguish the faces of the singers, or even their persons. Then at
a vast distance, lower still, was the floor of the choir, paved
beautifully in mosaic, and with little dots of men and women, slowly
creeping, like insects, over the surface of it. At a distance, through
the spaces between the columns, a part of the congregation could be
seen, with the women and children at the margin of it, kneeling on the
praying chairs, and a little red spot near a gate, which Rollo thought
must be the Swiss. The whole of the interior of the choir, which they
looked down into as you would look down into a valley from the summit of
a mountain, was so magnificently decorated with paintings, mosaics, and
frescoes, and enriched with columns, monuments, sculptures, and
carvings, and there were, moreover, so many railings, and screens, and
stalls, and canopies, and altars, to serve as furnishing for the vast
interior, that the whole view presented the appearance of a scene of
enchantment.
Mr. George said it was the most imposing spectacle that he ever saw.
After this, the guide led our two travellers up about a hundred feet
higher still, till they came to the first outer gallery; and the scene
which presented itself to view here would be still more difficult to
describe than the other. The gallery was very narrow, like the one
within, and it led through a perfect maze of columns, pinnacles,
arches, turrets, flying buttresses, and other constructions pertaining
to the exterior architecture of the church. It was like walking on a
mountain in the midst of a forest of stone. The analogy was increased by
the monstrous forms of bears, lions, tigers, boars, and other wild and
ferocious beasts, which projected from the eaves every where to convey
the water that came down from rains, out to a distance from the walls of
the building. These images had deep grooves cut along their backs for
the water to flow in. These grooves led to the mouths of the animals,
and they were invisible to persons looking up from below, so that to
observers on the ground each animal appeared perfect in his form, and
was seen stretching out the whole length of his body from the cornices
of the building, and pouring out the water from his mouth.
From these outer galleries Rollo could not only see the pinnacles, and
turrets, and flying buttresses, of the part of the church which was
finished, but he could also observe the immense works of scaffolding and
machinery erected around the part which was now in progress. Men were at
work hoisting up immense stones, and moving them along by a railway to
the places on the walls where they were destined to go. The yard, too,
on one side, far, far down, was covered with blocks, some rough, and
others already carved and sculptured, and ready to go up. The towers
were in view too, with the monstrous crane leaning over from the summit
of one of them; but there seemed to be no way of getting to them but by
crossing long scaffoldings where the masons were now at work. This Rollo
would have had no wish to do, even if the guide had proposed to conduct
him.
So, after spending half an hour in surveying the magnificent prospect
which opened every where around them over the surrounding country, and
in scrutinizing the details of the architecture near, the sculptures,
the masonry, the painted windows, the massive piers, and the buttresses
hanging by magic, as it were, in the air, and all the other wonders of
the maze of architectural constructions which surrounded them, the party
began their descent.
"I am glad they are going to finish it," said Rollo to Mr. George, as
they were walking round and round, and round and round, in the little
turret, going down the stairs. "The next time we come here, perhaps, it
will be done."
"They expect it will take twenty years to finish it," said Mr. George.
"Twenty years!" repeated Rollo, surprised.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "and about four millions of dollars. Why, when
they first determined that they would attempt to finish it, it took
fifteen years to make the repairs which were necessary in the old work,
before they could begin any of the new. And now, at the rate that they
are going on, it will take twenty years to finish it. For my part, I do
not know whether we ought to be glad to have it finished or not, on
account of the immense cost. It seems as if that money could be better
expended."
"Perhaps it could," said Rollo. "But every body that comes here to see
it gets a great deal of pleasure; and as an immense number of people
will come, I think the amount of the pleasure will be very great in
all."
"That is true," said Mr. George, "and that is the right way to consider
it; but let us make the calculation in the same way that we made the
calculation about the gold chain that you were going to buy in London.
If we suppose that the church was half done when they left off the work,
and that it will now cost four millions of dollars to finish it, that
will make eight millions of dollars in all. Now, what is the interest of
eight millions of dollars, say at three per cent.?"
Rollo began to calculate it in his mind; but before he had got through,
Mr. George said that it was two hundred and forty thousand dollars a
year.
"That," said Mr. George, "is equal, with a proper allowance for repairs,
to, say a thousand dollars per day. Now, do you think that the people
who will come here to see it will get pleasure enough from it to amount
in all to a thousand dollars a day?"
"I don't know," said Rollo, doubtfully. "I'd give one dollar, I know, to
see it."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "so would I; and I do not know but that there
would be three hundred thousand to come in a year, including all the
great occasions that would bring out immense assemblages from all the
surrounding country."
"At any rate, I hope they will finish it," said Rollo.
"So do I," said Mr. George.
"And I mean to put a little in the man's plate when I go down," said
Rollo, "and then I shall have a share in it."
"I will too," said Mr. George.
Accordingly, as they passed by the man when they were leaving the
church, Mr. George put a franc into his plate, and Rollo half a franc.
Just at the time that they put their money in, the party that Minnie
belonged to came by, and the gentleman put in a silver coin called a
thaler, which is worth about seventy-five cents; so that Rollo had the
satisfaction of seeing that one of the four millions of dollars was
raised on the spot.
[Illustration]