iii* MEDIEVAL CIVILIZATION boxes arc placed at the angles and stand out from the facade; all the corners are ornamented with statuettes. The interior of the rooms is ornamented with foliage or with sculptured figures, painted in brilliant colors. Never, perhaps, have edifices been erected which make so gay an impression, The Flamboyant Gothic*—The more we approach the end of the Middle Ages the more are the churches ornamented, and the more varied and studied are the adornments; the most common is the cabbage leaf, oddly contorted. The church resembles a piece of stone embroidery. This style is called the Flamboyant Gothic, and was chiefly employed in the fifteenth cen- tury. The masterpieces of that epoch are: in England, Westminster Abbey; in France, the Tower of Saint Jacques and the Church of Saint Onen at Rouen. We are accustomed to treat with scorn the flamboyant style, as if it were a corruption of the pure Gothic. It is true that the most beautiful churches are of the earlier period of the Gothic; but the greater num- ber of beautiful mansions date from the fifteenth century. Character of the Gothic—There is no agreement as to the impression produced by the Gothic churches. The greater number of visitors are touched by the majesty of the high vaults and by those forests of slender columns which lose themselves in the heavens, by the bizarre aspect of those sharp turrets, of the twisted foliage, of the fantastic monsters, or by the mysterious light filtering clown through the colored panes. That cage of stone and glass, which appears to stand only as by a miracle, gives them an impression