From the cathedral Louis removed the relic to the chapel of Saint Nicholas, attached to the palace, so that it might be under his close supervision, and then, in an ecstasy of reverence he planned for its shelter a building which should be “in no wise like the houses of men,” the Sainte Chapelle. Only royal chapels received the title “Sainte.” This exquisitely beautiful structure is indeed royal, as it is truly a chapel, small and without transepts. The lower part contains the crypt with ogival vaulting which the builder, Pierre de Montereau, the architect of [Illustration: THE SAINTE CHAPELLE, ERECTED BY LOUIS IX.] [Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE SAINTE CHAPELLE.] the refectory of Saint Martin-des-Champs, learned, perhaps, from the Saracens. This part of the church was used for the religious services of the servants of the palace. It has been restored recently with the vivid red and blue and gold of its original decoration. Above is the main body of the chapel, with no entrance except that into the palace whence it was Louis’s habit to come twice or thrice during each night to prostrate himself before the altar. The chapel’s solid walls reach not far above a man’s head, and above them is a glittering mass of gorgeous glass, some of it the original. At the eastern end a gilded framework supports the platform to which the king ascended by a tiny staircase on the left side to show the sacred relic to the devout. Behind him the lower part of the western window was of plain glass that the people gathered in the courtyard might have the same privilege as those inside. The gold and jeweled covering of the relic was seized during the Revolution. The Crown, cased in glass, is now in the sacristy of Notre Dame. The chapel’s glass tells the story of the coming of the relic to France and has portraits of the king and of Queen Blanche. In the outside carving as well as in the inside decoration Louis’s fleur-de-lis and his mother’s towers of Castile are repeated. The R of the _rex_ stands supported by angels. A wealth of loving ornament enriches the western façade. At one side a tiny window cut slanting in the thickness of the wall is the only opening from the chapel into a private room built on to the outside by Louis XI who feared assassination if he should attend mass openly. The _flèche_ now rising from the roof dates from 1853 and is the fourth of its kind. The second was burned, and the third destroyed in the Revolution. It is wonderful that the whole building did not meet a similar fate, for it was used as a storehouse for flour and received no gentle treatment. To-day, although still a consecrated edifice, but one service is held in it during the year. That is called the “Red Mass” and to it go the judiciaries, clad in their scarlet robes, when the courts open in the autumn, to celebrate the “Mass of the Holy Ghost.”