STRASBURG.

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Theo tlie renowned "rose" or "marigold-window" (43feet in diameter), abovc the principal entrance, is so rieh intracery, spreading in mere fibres from its centre, that onemight fancy it a garden-spider's web spun in stone; whilst

of Suabia. The Bishop Werner, of Hapsburg, founded the present strueture in1015. But the Bishop, who is said to have been a kind of ecclesiastical AdmirableCrichton — a skilful architect, a gallant soldier, a devout prelate, and a keendiplomatist — all rolled into one — was (fortunately for the Cathedral) despatchedas ambassador to the Emperor of the Greeks, who detained him as prisoner,so that he ultimately died at Constantinople. After this, the Bishop Conrad ofLichtemberg undertook the completion of the edifice, and entiusted the workto Erwin of Steinbach — an architect so called from the little village of Stein-bach, in the vicinity of Baden, where he was born, and where a monument hasrecently been erected to his memory. The clioir was already finished; but toErwin was confided the construetion of the designs for the facade, the tower,and the spire. The original plans of Erwin are still preserved in the town, andhe worked at the strueture for forty-three years. He died, however, in 1318,before the building was half tinished; after that his son John continued tosuperintend the construetion of the spire, and when he died, Erwin's daughterSabina undertook the completion of the work, and enriched the facade withseveral of its most delicate bits of sculpture. The remains of the architecturalrace are interred in the little court behind the Chapel of St. John, where may stillbe seen the gravestone of Erwin and his wife and son. After the death of Sabinathe work again stood still; and when another Century had elapsed, John Hülz,the architect of Köln, was summoned to Strasburg to finish the tower, whichwas not completed tili 1439 — or 424 years after the church had been commenced.

Still the other tower, which is found in the original designs of Erwin, iswanting. As the Cathedral at present exists, however, it contains fine speeimensof the different periods of Gothic architecture, viz. from its origin in the last epochof the Roman style (as seen in the lower part of the church and the choir, whichis said to be of the time of Charlemagne), the purity of the Gothic style in itsperfection (of which the Upper part of the building is a fine instance), as well asthe same style in its decline.

But the Strasburg Cathedral has had many narrow escapes from destruetion sinceits completion. During the French Revolution, toivards the end of the lastCentury, it was positively condemned, in the epidemic madness of the time, to bebeheaded. At one of the sittings of a " committee of public welfare " (comitede salnt public) in those days, a member of the Council, named Tcterel, rose anddemanded the parole upon a motion " in the highest degree interesting to publicOrder and republican morals."

" Citizens," he began, " there is a monument in this town which offends thesight and irritates the mind of all good patriots. I refer to the ' ex-cathedrale,'the spire of which elevates itself so haughtily into the air. This spire is an