[Illustration: Fig. 303.--“Au juste poids véritable balance.”--Picture by Antoine Picquet, Master-Painter in the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Amiens, presented to the church of that city on the 25th of December, 1518. This painting, now in the Cluny Museum, is but the symbolic development of the above motto. The Virgin is in a standing posture beneath a canopy; the Infant Jesus is drawing towards him one of the scales of the balance in which God the Father, surrounded by his angels, is about to weigh the crowns of earthly sovereigns. In the background, amidst beautiful scenery, on one side peasants are gathering in the harvest and the vintage, and on the other is seen Queen Claude, mounted, and followed by a brilliant suite. In the foreground are two groups: to the right Francis I., with Triboulet his jester, and knights; to the left, the emperor, the pope, a cardinal, the Bishop of Amiens, and several abbots.--From an Engraving in the “Arts au Moyen Age,” by Dusommerard.] The mere list of the pilgrimages of Our Lady in France, in that kingdom of the lilies which has always been under the immediate protection of the Virgin Mary, would fill several pages, and it would take whole volumes to relate their origin and history. We will therefore only mention the most famous and the most ancient: Our Lady of Alet, near Toulouse (Fig. 300); Our Lady of the Fountain of the Ardilliers, near Saumur; Our Lady of the Virtues, at Aubervilliers, near Paris; Our Lady of the Haven, at Clermont, in Auvergne; Our Lady of Fourvières, at Lyons; Our Lady of the Osier, near Grenoble; Our Lady of Bonne-Garde, at Longpont; Our Lady of Bethlehem, at Ferrières, Gâtinais; Our Lady of Good Hope, at Valenciennes; Our Lady of Grace, at Cambrai (Fig. 301); Our Lady of Boulogne-sur-Mer (Fig. 302), &c. Most of these are represented by painted images--some brought from the East at the time of the Crusades; others, the origin of which is only spoken to by the miracles which marked them out for the veneration of the faithful. There are also statuettes in wood and stone, nearly all of which belong to the Coptic group of black Virgins, which throughout Europe are associated with miracles of an early age. [Illustration: Fig. 304.--Sufferers from St. Vitus’ Dance going on a Pilgrimage to the Church of St. Willibrod, Epternacht, near Luxemburg.--After a Drawing by P. Breughel (Sixteenth Century), in the Gallery of Archduke Albert, at Vienna.]