The cardinal was so truly delighted by the beauty of the structure, which had arisen under his auspices, that he determined to grace it with the largest bell in France; and such was afterwards cast at his expence.—­Even Tom of Lincoln could scarcely compete with Georges d’Amboise; for thus the bell was duly christened.  It weighed thirty-three thousand pounds; its diameter at the base was thirty feet; its height was ten feet; and thirty stout and sweating bell-ringers could hardly put it into swing.—­Such was the importance attached to the undertaking, that it was thought worthy of a religious ceremony.  At the appointed hour for casting the bell, the clergy paraded in full procession round the church, to implore the blessing of heaven upon the work; and, when the signal was given that the glowing metal had filled the enormous mould, Te Deum resounded as with one voice; the organ pealed, the trombones and clarions sounded, and all the other bells in the cathedral joined, as loudly and as sweetly as they could, in announcing the birth of their prouder brother.—­The remainder of the story is of a different complexion:—­The founder, Jean le Machon, of Chartres, died from excess of joy, and was buried in the nave of the cathedral, where Pommeraye[76] tells us the tomb existed in his time; with a bell engraved upon it, and the following epitaph:—­

        “Cy-dessous gist Jean le Machon
     De Chartres homme de facon
     Lequel fondit Georges d’Amboise
     Qui trente six mille livres poise
     Mil cinq cens un jour d’Aoust deuxieme
     Puis mourut le vingt et unieme.”

Nor was this the only misfortune; for, after all, this great bell proved, like a great book, a great nuisance:  the sound it uttered was scarcely audible; and, at last, in an attempt to render it vocal, upon a visit paid by Louis XVIth to Rouen in 1786, it was cracked[77].  It continued, however, to hang, a gaping-stock to children and strangers, till the revolution, in 1793, caused it to be returned to the furnace, whence it re-issued in the shape of cannon and medals, the latter commemorating the pristine state of the metal with the humiliating legend, “monument de vanite detruit pour l’utilite[78].”

Some of the clerestory windows on the northern side of the nave are circular:  the tracery which fills them, and the mouldings which surround them, belong to the pointed style; the arches may therefore have been the production of an earlier architect.  The windows of the nave are crowned by pediments, each terminating, not with a pinnacle, but with a small statue.  The pediments over the windows of the choir are larger and bolder, and perforated as they rise above the parapet; the members of the mouldings are full, and produce a fine effect.