"If, to prevent a place which the king has entrusted to me falling into the enemy's hands, I had to throw myself, my family, and all my possessions into the breach, I would not hesitate for a moment to do so".
Marshal Fabert, who was as clever an administrator as he was a magnificent soldier, restored agriculture and commerce in Champagne, and established at Sedan the manufacture of broadcloth, which till then belonged to Flanders and the Pays-Bas. King Louis XIV held him in very high esteem.
The Cathedral and the Place d'Armes.
On the left extremity of the cathedral is the pseudo-Gothic porch built by the Germans (see [photograph on p. 179]) in the decoration of which William II is represented as the prophet Daniel ([Photo p. 178]).
In the foreground, on the Place, the statue of Marshal Fabert.
(Cliché LL.)
THE CATHEDRAL
All one side of the Place d'Armes is occupied by the Cathedral Saint-Étienne, a masterpiece of the pointed style. The fabric recalls Amiens and Beauvais. If from the outside it may seem curtailed, the interior (121 m. long, 22 wide and 43 high), with its resplendent stained windows, is vast and altogether beautiful.