[Illustration: Vessel for holy water]
The principal curiosity of the church, and indeed of the town, is the
shrine, which contained, or perhaps, contains, a portion of the bones of
the patron saint, whose body, after having continued for more than three
hundred years a hidden treasure, was at last revealed in a miraculous
manner to the prayers of Landulphus, one of his successors in the
episcopacy.--The cathedral of Chartres, in early ages, set up a rival
claim for the possession of this precious relic; but its existence here
was formally verified at the end of the seventeenth century, by the
opening of the _chasse_, in which a small quantity of bones was found
tied up in a leather bag, with a certificate of their authenticity,
signed by an early bishop.--The shrine is of silver-gilt, about one and
a half foot in height and two feet in length: it is a fine specimen of
ancient art. In shape it resembles the nave of a church, with the sides
richly enchased with figures of saints and bishops. Our curious eyes
would fain have pried within; but it was closed with the impression of
the archbishop's signet.--A crypt, the original burial place of St.
Taurinus, is still shewn in the church, and it continues to be the
object of great veneration.
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