76

COLOGNE.

The artist feit that tliis was the moraent upon which hissalvation depended. Breathing a prayer to the holy saints forsuccess, lie grasped the marvellous plan tightly in his hand, ashe held up the precious relic with the other, and exclaimed," In the name of the holy Ursula and the eleven thousandmartyrs I bid thee begone! Begone! I command thee, Satan!by virtue of this virgiu relie."

The arch-fiend was taken by surprise.

" I am outwitted," cried he, furious at the triek; " butI will be revenged in spite of your relics and your priests.Listen, foolish mortal! That church, the plan of which youhave cheated me, shall never be completed ; and as for thee, Iwill blot out thy name front the memory of mankind: tliycathedral shall remain for ever unfinished, and thee for everunknown." And so saying, the demon vanished.

The words, unfinished and unknoion, rang ominously inthe architect's ear; and, though master of the marvellousplan he had so long desired, he returned home stricken downwith melancholy.

Years passed bj r , and the noble cathedral, the building ofwhich had been begun with vigour, continued to rise higherand higher, and to grow daily into form, so that the architectgot almost to believe that the fiend would prove a false prophetafter all.

As for his name, he determined—so that it might endure aslong as the structure itself—to have it engraved upon a brassplate and let into the tower, beneath where the clock was to befixed. Ile was the builder of an edifice which he knew theworld could not equal, and, in the vain-glory of his heart, hethought no accident could cheat him of his famc.

The architect went to the top of the half-raised tower tosurvey with pride the proportions of the expanding mass, and,