northern one thirty years later, being finished only in 1537, there is a simplicity and grandeur in their treatment which places them far ahead of the contemporary façade of the cathedral of Rouen, built (1509-30) by Cardinal d’Amboise, which is of a most florid character, and looks like a piece of rough rockwork encrusted with images and tabernacles, and ornamented from top to bottom. In 1555 the architects of Beauvais being seized with the desire of rivalling the dome of St. Peter’s at Rome, which was then the object of universal admiration, undertook the construction of a spire on the intersection of the transepts, which they completed in thirteen years, but which stood only five years from that time, having fallen down on the day of the Ascension in the year 1573. This accident so damaged the works under it as to require considerable reconstruction, which is what we now see. This spire, of which the original drawings still exist, was 486 ft. in height; and although, as might be expected from the age in which it was erected, not of the purest design, must still have been a very noble and beautiful object, hardly inferior to that of Chartres, which was built only half a century earlier. [Illustration: 631. Doorway, South Transept, Beauvais. (From Chapuy.)] [Illustration: 632. Plan of Cathedral at Noyon. (From Ramée’s ‘Monographie.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.] Taken altogether, the cathedral of Beauvais may be considered as an example of that “vaulting ambition that o’erleaps itself.” Every principle of Gothic art is here carried to an extreme which tends to destroy the object with which it was designed, and not only partially has caused the ruin of the building and practically prevented its completion, but has run the risk of destroying its artistic effect, so as to make it an example of what should be avoided rather than of what should be followed. It has perhaps that want of repose and solidity which has often been made the reproach of Gothic architecture. And were it not for the perfection of its masonry and the majesty of its size, the additional piers which it was found necessary to insert might be regarded as props applied to prevent its falling, instead of suggesting, as they do, additional strength and insuring durability. There is one example in France in which this danger of carrying the principles of Gothic art to its extreme is painfully evident. The church of St. Urbain of Troyes, mentioned farther on, p. 155, and the choir of which has just been restored (1891) and filled with modern stained glass, resembles more an ephemeral construction in iron and glass, a sort of mediæval crystal palace, than one in which the solid construction of its masonry should give repose and a sense of solidity and strength. [Illustration: 633. Spires of Laon Cathedral. (From Dusomerard.)]