Some of the capitals and corbels of the south aisle are most droll--prophets, flying Angels, and divers kinds of animals, all more or less grotesque, after the manner of the _miserere_ seats at Wells cathedral. During the reign of Henri IV. Sibyls, and Prophets, Patriarchs and Apostles, were painted by one Jacques Bunel on a gold ground above the arches of the nave; but happily they have disappeared. It was Mlle. de Montpensier who caused the marbling of the choir to be undertaken in 1684, and who also bore the expense of the baldachino of the altar, employing the sculptor Tubi to carry out the designs of Lebrun. [Illustration: SAINT-SÉVERIN.] In the side aisle, on the south, is a little door leading through a garden, formerly the graveyard, to the _presbytère_. This, in summer, forms a charming little picture. In one of the side chapels (Notre-Dame de l'Espérance) is a 15th century wall-painting of _The Resurrection of the Dead_; and in the chapel of the chevet a _Preaching of John the Baptist_, also in fresco. In the apse are a series of fluted and spiral columns. The bosses are many of them ornamented with figures--the Annunciation, S. Anne and S. Joachim at the golden gate, a Holy Face, and a chalice surmounted by the host. A number of distinguished persons were buried at S. Séverin: Étienne Pasquier, an eloquent _Avocat-Général_ under Henri III. who was mainly instrumental in causing the exclusion of the Jesuits from the University, and who died in 1615; the brothers Saint-Martre, celebrated men of letters living at the beginning of the 17th century; and Moreri, the author of the _Dictionnaire Historique_, who died in 1680. There are only three ancient epitaphs remaining--that of Nicolas de Bomont, who died in 1540; Guillaume Fusée, president of the Parliament of Paris, and of his wife, Jeanne Desportes, who made several pious foundations in 1521; and Jean Baptiste Altin, _conseilleur au Châtelet_, who died in 1640. The first, Nicolas Bomont, his wife, and fifteen children, are represented as pigmy personages praying at the foot of the Crucified. The emblems upon the Altin slab have been borrowed from the Roman catacombs; and the epitaph is as follows: ALTINI PECCATORIS OSSA HIC JACENT, PIE JESU MISERERE EIUS TU VIATOR PRECARE PRO EO VIX [Symbol] AN [Symbol] PLU [Symbol] JUNIVS A [Symbol] C [Symbol] DIONYSIANO MDCXL [Symbol] SENATOR FOIT IN CASTELL [Symbol] PAR [Symbol] PŒNE QUADRAGEN [Symbol] VALE VIATOR ET VALERE MANES IOBE A modern tablet states that the first confraternity established in France under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception was founded at S. Séverin in 1311, but the chapels used by the association have disappeared.