rs, which are
happily in a state of complete restoration, and not as a modern writer
has described them, "practically a ruin." The wall which overlooks them
has an inscription that adjures the Canons to "bear with patience the
north aspect of their cells." The short walks have tunnel vaults with
cross-vaults in the corners and in parts of the north aisle. Great piers
and small, firm columns support the outer arches; and on the exterior of
the Cloister the little arches of the columns are enclosed in a large
round arch. Many of the capitals are uncarved, some of the piers have
applied columns, but many are ornamented in straight cut lines. On one
side, two bays open to the ground, forming an entrance-way into the
pretty close, where the bushy tops of a few tall trees cast flickering
shadows on the surrounding walls and the little grassy square.

[Illustration: "TWO BAYS OPEN TO THE GROUND."--VAISON.]

[Illustration: "THE GREAT PIERS AND SMALL FIRM COLUMNS."--VAISON.]

The Cloister is small and simple in its rather heavy grace. Noise and
unrest seem far from it, and underneath its solid rounded vault is peace
and shelter from the world. And in its firm solidity of architecture
there is the spirit of a perfect quiet, a tranquil charm which must
insensibly have calmed many a restless spirit that chafed beneath the
churchly frock, and fled within its walls for refuge and for helpful
meditation.

Few Provencal Cathedrals have the interest of Vaison and its Cloister.
Lying in the forgotten valley of the Ouveze, in an old-fashioned town,
all its surroundings speak of the past and its atmosphere is quite
unspoiled. The church itself has been spared degenerating restorations;
and although it has no sumptuousness as at Marseilles, no grandeur as at
Arles, no stirring history as the churches that lay near the sea,
although it is one of the smallest and most venerable of them all, no
Cathedral of the Southland has so great an architectural dignity and
merit with so ancient and so quaint a charm.

[Sidenote: Arles.]

In the midst of the wealth of antique ruins, near the Theatre, the
Coliseum, and the Forum of this "little Rome of the Gauls," stands a
noble monument of the ruder ages of Christianity, the Cathedral,
Saint-Trophime. Here Saint Augustine, apostle to England, was
consecrated; here three General Councils of the Church were held, here
the Donatists were doomed to everlasting fire, and here the Emperor
Constantine,