The examples of German Gothic cathedrals are few as compared with those in France and England. Of the three finest--=Strasburg=, =Ratisbon=, =Cologne=--the last is the most magnificent and is also the largest of all Mediæval cathedrals after =Seville= and =Milan=. Its plan is derived from Amiens, while the edifice embraces the chief features of many French cathedrals and is, in fact, an epitomised imitation of French Gothic. =Cologne.=--Meanwhile, there is a German legend of the origin of the design, which is interesting for the light it throws on the Mediæval spirit. While the architect, bidden by the archbishop to build the noblest shrine in Christendom, sat beside the river pondering, an old man approached him and, having traced in the sand a plan, immediately obliterated it. But the architect had seen enough to know that the plan was the one that was dawning in his mind yet still eluded him. When the old man consented to give it and moreover promised the master-builder a life of fame and riches, demanding only his soul in recompense, the master-builder’s eyes were opened and he cried “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Then he told his confessor, who contrived a scheme whereby the devil might be circumvented. Satan had promised to return, bringing the plan. The master-builder kept the appointment and, snatching the precious document with one hand, in the other brandished a fragment of the True Cross. “I am vanquished!” exclaimed Satan; “but you shall reap no benefit, through your treachery. Your name will be forgotten and your work will never be completed.” Time, however, discounted the Devil’s curse, for the cathedral was completed during the nineteenth century. It had been begun in 1270 and in all the additions subsequently made the original design was adhered to. Hence =Cologne= presents a very remarkable example of structural unity; and, by the same token, a rather chill precision, product of imitation, instead of a growth which reflects the changing style of successive centuries. The plan, as at Amiens, includes double side-aisles and a chevêt of seven apses and an ambulatory, but its transepts are extended by an extra bay and one bay of the nave is included in the western entrance. Here the German fondness for towers and spires, already noted in their Romanesque architecture, finds expression in twin towers, crowned with spires of openwork tracery. This last feature is a characteristic of German Gothic. The transition from the tower to the spire is admirably arranged so as to enforce the function and beauty of each; and the effect should be compared with that of =S. Stephen, Vienna=. In the latter the transition is more gradual, so that the spire seems to start from the ground and, notwithstanding the splendour of the whole, “it lacks the vigour and accent” that a better definition of tower and spire produces.