pick will be laid to it.  A mason has been found to build a
little white house between the venerable towers of the Palais
de-Justice.  Another has been found willing to prune away
Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the feudal abbey with three bell
towers.  Another will be found, no doubt, capable of pulling
down Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois.  All these masons claim to
be architects, are paid by the prefecture or from the petty
budget, and wear green coats.  All the harm which false taste
can inflict on good taste, they accomplish.  While we write,
deplorable spectacle! one of them holds possession of the
Tuileries, one of them is giving Philibert Delorme a scar across
the middle of his face; and it is not, assuredly, one of the
least of the scandals of our time to see with what effrontery
the heavy architecture of this gentleman is being flattened
over one of the most delicate façades of the Renaissance! 

PARIS, October 20, 1832. 

End of The Project Gutenberg Etext Notre-Dame de Paris, by Victor Hugo