It was a bright morning, almost the first really sunny springtide day that year, and it was accepted by all as a glad omen of a bright era opening on France with the elections of that day. A stream of people poured into the Cathedral through the west gate and northern portal. The nave was reserved for the electors; the people of Évreux filled the transepts and aisles. In the centre, under Cardinal Balue’s tower, sat the nobility, many of them dressed with studious splendour; the clergy occupied the choir, and overflowed into the choir-aisles. The third estate sat west of the central tower. This body of men presented marked contrasts in the appearance of the members constituting it. Side by side with the lawyer and surgeon, in good black cloth suits, black satin breeches, and black silk stockings, sat the peasant delegate in coarse blue cloth jacket, brown cap,--that cap which has been mounted on the flag-staff of the Republic as the badge of liberty,--and shoes of brown leather without heels, laced in front. Next to him a miller, with a broad-brimmed hat, pinched to make it triangular, a velvet waistcoat, and a coat set with large mother-of-pearl buttons, and here and there also a curé in cassock turned green with age, and black bands, edged with white; for some of the country villages sent their priests to bear their complaints before the great assembly. Never had that noble church looked more impressive than on that March morning. It is peculiarly narrow and lofty, and darkened by the immense amount of painted glass which fills the windows,--glass of the highest style of art, and great depth of colour, and thickness of material. The bishop occupied his throne, and the Abbé de Cernay, dean of the chapter, sang the mass of the Holy Ghost, in crimson vestments. Never, probably, has that grand church resounded with a finer choral burst of song than when, at the conclusion of the mass, those seven hundred and fifty priests, with the choir, and a number of the laity, joined with the thunder of the organ, in the _Veni Creator_, sung to the melody composed by good King Robert of France.