The history of Notre-Dame is in a great measure the history of France. It was there that the _Te Deum_ was sung after successful battles, and where the standards which were taken from the enemy were suspended during the continuance of the wars. There, too, in the early part of the 13th century, S. Dominic preached from a book given him by the Blessed Virgin, who appeared to the Saint after an hour's silent meditation, radiant with beauty, and dazzling as the sunlight. Some fifty years ago, the cathedral, and, indeed, all Paris, was stirred by the _conférences_ held there by one of S. Dominic's own children, Père Lacordaire, who, with his friends Lamennais and Montalembert, made an effort to free the Roman branch of the Catholic Church from the fungi which had grown on to it, an effort which was as fruitless as that undertaken by his predecessor Savonarola, 400 years before him. [Illustration: NOTRE-DAME AT SUNSET.] On Easter Eve, the 12th April, 1229, the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VII., was absolved of the crime of heresy in Notre-Dame. As the old chronicler Guillaume de Puylaurens relates: "Et c'était pitié de voir un si grand homme, lequel par si long espace de temps avait pu résister à tant et de si fortes nations, conduit nu, en chemise, bras et pieds découverts, jusqu'à l'autel." Here is a pleasant little example of some of the doings of the "good old times": Pierre Bonfons tells us that in 1381 the _prévôt_ of Paris, one Hugues Aubriot, accused and found guilty of heresy and other crimes, was, through the instrumentality of the University, "presché et mitré publiquement au Parvis-Notre-Dame, et après ce, condamné à être en l'oubliette au pain et à l'eau." On the 27th November, 1431,[107] the child, Henry VI. of England, was crowned King of France in the choir of the cathedral. But the pomp of this ceremony was soon effaced, for, on the Friday in Easter week, 1436, a _Te Deum_ was sung to celebrate the retaking of Paris by the troops of Charles VII. In the 13th century the Feast of the Assumption was celebrated with great pomp; the whole church was hung with valuable tapestries, and the pavement covered with sweet-smelling flowers and herbs; but two centuries later, grass from the fields of Gentilly seems to have sufficed to do honour to Our Lady on her _fête_ day. The same custom prevailed here as at the Sainte-Chapelle and other churches, of letting fly pigeons, and throwing flowers and torches of flaming flax from the windows in celebration of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost; and every year, on the 22nd March, the chapter went in procession to the church of the Grands-Augustins, where a mass was sung in memory of Henri IV.'s entry into Paris in 1594. [Illustration: PIERRE DE FAYET.]