Thanks to the protective measures taken, the interior decoration of the choir escaped injury. It dates from the 18th century and comprises a high altar of marble, surrounded by a wrought-iron railing, and flanked by two marble statues of the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel, depicting the Annunciation. Two consoles of carved and gilded wood with marble tops, complete this group. The stalls only are 17th century. The North Arm of the Transept. The north arm of the transept, flanked by aisles, shows the same arrangement as the nave, but ends in a straight wall (late 13th century) which was ornamented in the 14th century. A clerestory gallery joining the triforium of the side walls, and carried on small, light columns, is built against this wall. Above are pierced a row of bays and a fine rose-window containing old stained-glass. During the war, a fine picture by Rubens (1635), painted for the Franciscan Fathers in return for their having nursed him through an illness contracted at Soissons, was removed from the north arm of the transept to a place of safety. This picture, which represents the Adoration of the Shepherds, has a fine frame of carved and gilded wood of the Regency period. The bombardments did little damage to the north arm of the transept and to the intersection of the transepts. The worst injury was the falling in of one of the vaults of the north arm, and the breaking of the arch-band uniting two of the large pillars of the transept. The art treasures. In addition to the works of art preserved in the choir and transept, the Cathedral possesses a fragment of a 16th century _tapestry_, all that remains of a large piece devoted to the legend of Saint-Gervais and Saint-Protais, which, before the War, hung in the north aisle of the nave. [Illustration: WOODWORK IN THE SOUTHERN AISLE.] Before the War, at the entrance to the nave on each side of the main portal, were memorial =statues= of two abbesses of the ancient abbey of Notre-Dame, represented kneeling, with folded hands, in the costume of the period: _Henriette de Lorraine d’Elbeuf_, abbess from 1660 to 1669, and _Gabrielle-Marie de la Rochefoucauld_ (1683–1693). _Photographs of these two statues are given below._ In the sacristy are preserved fragments of flamboyant style =woodwork=, a 17th century =chalice= of finely chased gilt silver, a magnificent =Crucifix= by _Girardon_ and a fine =reliquary= in gilt copper (1560), representing the plan of Soissons with its battlemented walls and churches of the period. (_See p. _3). [Illustration: HENRIETTE DE LORRAINE D’ELBEUF] [Illustration: GABRIELLE-MARIE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD _Funeral Statues to two Abbesses of the old Abbey of Notre-Dame._] [Illustration: SOUTHERN ARM OF TRANSEPT. _See the Interior, p. _25.] Side façades of the Cathedral. The exterior of Soissons Cathedral is remarkable for the great simplicity of its lines and its well-balanced construction.