"But remember the passages in which Isaiah and Jeremiah speak of Lucifer as dwelling in the blast of the north wind; and recollect that the great cathedrals did not originate in the south but in the middle and north of France; consequently, after having adopted this symbolism of seasons and weather, the pious architects dreamed of the horror of men buried in snow, and longing for a gleam of sunshine and a bright day. Naturally they thought of the east as the region of the original Paradise, and of those lands as milder and less inclement than their own." "That does not hinder the fact that this theory was controverted by Our Lord Himself." "Where do you find that?" asked the Abbe Plomb. "On Calvary; Jesus died" turning His back to the south, which had crucified Him, and extending His arms on the Cross to bless and embrace the north. He seemed to be withdrawing His favours from the east, 'to bestow them on the west. Hence, if any region is accurst and inhabited by Satan, it is the south and not the north." "You abominate the south and its races, that is evident," said the Abbe, laughing. "I do not love them. Their scenery, vulgarized by crude daylight, their dusty trees standing out against a sky of washerwoman's blue, have no charm for me; as to the natives, hairy and noisy, with a blue bar under their nostrils if they shave, I flee from them!" "Here, in short, we are face to face with a fact which no discussions can alter. This side of the church is dedicated to the Virgin. Shall we now examine it, first as a whole, and then in detail? "This portal, brought forward like an open porch, a sort of verandah in front of the doors, is an allegory of the Saviour showing the way into the heavenly Jerusalem. It was begun in the year 1215 under Philip Augustus, and finished by about 1275, under Philip the Bold; thus it was nearly sixty years in building, the greater part of the thirteenth century. It is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three doors behind it; there are more than seven hundred statues grouped here, large and small, representing, for the most part, personages from the Old Testament. "It forms, in fact, three deep bays or gulfs. "The central portal, before which we are standing, and which leads to the middle door, has for its subject the Glorification of the Virgin. "The left-hand bay contains the life and virtues of the Virgin. "The right-hand bay is devoted to images of Mary Herself. "According to another interpretation, put forward by Canon Davin, this porch, which was built at the time when Saint Dominic instituted the Rosary, is a reproduction in images of its mysteries."