Leaving the Cathedral, you pass a beautifully sculptured fountain (of the early time of Francis I.) which stands at the corner of a street, to the right; and which, from its central situation, is visited the live-long day for the sake of its limpid waters.  Push on a little further; then, turning to the right, you get into a sort of square, and observe the ABBEY—­or rather the west-front of it, full in face of you.  You gaze, and are first struck with its matchless window:  call it rose, or marygold, as you please.  I think, for delicacy and richness of ornament, this window is perfectly unrivalled.  There is a play of line in the mullions, which, considering their size and strength, may be pronounced quite a master-piece of art.  You approach, regretting the neglected state of the lateral towers, and enter, through the large and completely-opened centre doors, the nave of the Abbey.  It was towards sun-set when we made our first entrance.  The evening was beautiful; and the variegated tints of sun-beam, admitted through the stained glass of the window, just noticed, were perfectly enchanting.  The window itself, as you look upwards, or rather as you fix your eye upon the centre of it, from the remote end of the Abbey, or the Lady’s Chapel, was a perfect blaze of dazzling light:  and nave, choir, and side aisles, seemed magically illumined ...

  Seemed all on fire—­within, around;
  Deep sacristy and altar’s pale;
  Shone every pillar foliage-bound....

  Lay of the Last Minstrel.

We declared instinctively that the ABBEY OF ST. OUEN could hardly have a rival;—­certainly not a superior.

[Illustration]

As the evening came on, the gloom of almost every side chapel and recess was rendered doubly impressive by the devotion of numerous straggling supplicants; and invocations to the presiding spirit of the place, reached the ears and touched the hearts of the bystanders.  The grand western entrance presents you with the most perfect view of the choir—­a magical circle, or rather oval—­flanked by lofty and clustered pillars, and free from the surrounding obstruction of screens, &c.  Nothing more airy and more captivating of the kind can be imagined.  The finish and delicacy of these pillars are quite surprising.  Above, below, around—­every thing is in the purest style of the XIVth and XVth centuries.  The central tower is a tower of beauty as well as of strength.  Yet in regard to further details, connected with the interior, it must be admitted that there is very little more which is deserving of particular description; except it be the gallery, which runs within the walls of the nave and choir, and which is considerably more light and elegant than that of the cathedral.  A great deal has been said about the circular windows at the end of the south transept, and they are undoubtedly elegant:  but compared with the one at the extremity of the nave, they are rather to be noticed from the