Part 15 (1/2)

Elijah (?) speaking to an armed man under a tree.

20, D. The Messenger.

A messenger on his knees before a king. I cannot interpret these two scenes (20, C and 20, D).

The uppermost _may_ mean the dialogue of Elijah with the captains (2 Kings i. 2), and the lower one, the return of the messengers (2 Kings i. 5).

21. JONAH.

21, A. Escaped from the sea.

21, B. Under the gourd. A small gra.s.shopper-like beast gnawing the gourd stem. I should like to know what insects _do_ attack the Amiens gourds. This may be an entomological study, for aught we know.

22. MICAH.

_To the front._

22, A. The Tower of the Flock (iv. 8).

The tower is wrapped in clouds, G.o.d appearing above it.

22, B. Each shall rest and ”none shall make them afraid” (iv. 4).

A man and his wife ”under his vine and fig-tree.”

_Inside Porch._

22, C. ”Swords into ploughshares” (iv. 3).

Nevertheless, two hundred years after these medallions were cut, the sword manufacture had become a staple in Amiens! Not to her advantage.

22, D. ”Spears into pruning-hooks” (iv. 3).

23. NAHUM.

_Inside Porch._

23, A. ”None shall look back” (ii. 8).

23, B. The Burden of Nineveh (i. I).[65]

[Footnote 65: The statue of the prophet, above, is the grandest of the entire series; and note especially the ”diadema” of his own luxuriant hair plaited like a maiden's, indicating the Achillean force of this most terrible of the prophets. (Compare 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter LXV., page 157.) For the rest, this long flowing hair was always one of the insignia of the Frankish kings, and their way of dressing both hair and beard may be seen more nearly and definitely in the angle-sculptures of the long font in the north transept, the most interesting piece of work in the whole cathedral, in an antiquarian sense, and of much artistic value also. (See ante chap. ii. p. 45.)]

_To the front._

23, C. ”Thy Princes and thy great ones” (iii. 17).

23, A, B, and C, are all incapable of sure interpretation. The prophet in A is pointing down to a little hill, said by the Pere Roze to be covered with gra.s.shoppers. I can only copy what he says of them.

23, D. ”Untimely figs” (iii. 12).