like the beads

You have observed quite rightly that my burghers are arranged according to their degree of valour. As you know, to emphasize this effect, I wanted to set my statues in a line at ground level right in front of the Calais town hall, like the beads in a rosary of suffering and sacrifice. My figures would thus have seemed to be heading from the Town Hall to the camp of Edward III. And the citizens of Calais today, almost rubbing elbows with them, so to speak, would have felt the traditional bond of solidarity that ties them to these heroes.

-- Auguste Rodin, quoted in Art: Conversations with Paul Gsell
Translated by Jacques de Caso and Patricia B. Sanders

The Burghers of Calais