Nay, it is thus even more symbolical, and it emphasizes the idea of the windows in which the prophets bear on their shoulders the four Evangelists; once more the Old Testament appears as the base, the foundation of the New.
"What a fulcrum for dreams is this Romanesque!" Durtal went on.

"Is it not also the smoke-stained shrine, the gloomy retreat, constructed for black Virgins?
This seems all the less doubtful because all the Mauresque Virgins are thick-set and heavy; they are not sylphs, like the fair Virgins of Gothic art.

The Byzantine School conceived of Mary as swarthy, 'of the hue of polished brown ebony,' as the old historians say; only, in opposition to the text in Canticles, it painted or carved Her as black, indeed, but not comely.

Thus figured, She is truly a gloomy Virgin, eternally sorrowing, in harmony with the Romanesque catacombs.

Her presence naturally beseems the crypt of Chartres; but in the Cathedral itself, on the pillar where She stands to this day, does She not appear strange?
For She is not in Her true home under the soaring white vault." "Well, our friend, you are dreaming!" Durtal started like a man roused from sleep.
"Ah! It is you, Madame Bavoil ?" "To be sure.