[34] A. de Montaiglon, “La famille des Juste en France,” in Bulletin Monumental, 1876, vol. 42, pp. 76, 768. Details of the tombs of St. Denis are to be found in Palustre, La Renaissance en France (1888); Gonse, La Sculpture française depuis le XIVe siècle (1895); Vitry, Michel Colombe et la sculpture française (1901); and in writings by A. Saint-Paul and Louis Courajod.
[35] R. de Lasteyrie, “La déviation de l’axe des églises est-elle symbolique?” in Bulletin Monumental, 1905, vol. 69, p. 422, also published separately; A. Saint-Paul, “Les irrégularités de plan des églises,” in Bulletin Monumental, 1906, vol. 70, p. 129; John Bilson, “Deviation of Axis in Medieval Churches,” in Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, December 25, 1905; W. H. Goodyear, “Architectural Refinements in French Cathedrals,” in Architectural Record, vols. 16, 17, 1904-05, and Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 3d series, 1907, vol. 15, p. 17.
[36] During three days in August, 1793, and again in October of the same year, the tombs at St. Denis were violated. Robespierre stood long studying the chivalrous head of Henry IV, then plucked some hairs from the king’s white beard and put them in his portfolio; Henry IV had abjured Calvinism in this very church of St. Denis in 1593. The corpse of Louis XIV presented an air of serene majesty. When the coffin of Louis XV was opened the air was infected insupportably. On that same day in October, 1793, Marie Antoinette mounted the scaffold. Her remains and those of Louis XVI are to-day laid in the inner core of St. Denis’ crypt.
[37] E. O’Reilly, Les deux procès de condamnation ... de Jeanne d’Arc, vol. 2, p. 134, the eighth interrogation, March 17, 1431 (Paris, Plon, 1868), 2 vols.
[38] Charles Péguy, Œuvres de, “La tapisserie de Sainte-Geneviève et de Jeanne d’Arc,” vol. 6 (Paris, édition de la Nouvelle Revue française, 1916-18).
[39] The following is a free rendering of Péguy’s verses:
Since God but acts for pity of us here,
So Geneviève must see her France in shreds,
And Paris, her own godchild, swept by flames,
And ravaged by the most sinister hordes.
And hearts devoured by blackest base discords,
And even in their graves the dead pursued,
On gibbets many an innocent hung high
With tongue protruding, pecked by raven birds.
France all despair. Then saw she come the Sign,
A greater marvel never God had willed
In His Serenity and Grace and Force,
After nine hundred-twenty vigil years
Geneviève saw approach her ancient city
Her of Lorraine, emblem of God’s pure pity—
Jeanne the Maid!—
Guarding her heart intact in dire adversity,
Masking beneath her visor her efficacity,
Living in deep mystery with sweet sagacity,
Dying in drear martyrdom with brave vivacity
Sweeping all an army to the feet of Prayer.