Note 12 — Chapter V · THE TRANSEPTS AND THE CHOIR.

In his “Paris” (London, Edward Arnold, 1900), Mr. Hilaire Belloc thus refers to the fire of 1218: “In 1218 a happy accident gave us the incomparable unity which the Cathedral alone possesses among mediæval monuments; for in that year, on the eve of the Assumption, four inspired thieves climbed into the roof-tree and warily let down ropes with slip-knots to lasso the silver candlesticks on the altar. These they snared, but as they pulled them up the lights set fire to the hangings that were stretched for the feasts, and the fire spread to the whole choir.” The writer gives no authority for this story.