to be otherwise notable.

The interior vies with the outer portion of the fabric in the general
effect of majesty and good design. The triforium is remarkably beautiful
and is overtopped by a range of clerestory windows which to an
appreciable extent contain good early glass. The easterly end is the
usual semicircular apse.

Among the relics of the Cathedral is a crucifix which is supposed to
emit drops of blood when one perjures himself before it. It is, perhaps,
significant that the people of Finistere, the department which claims
Quimper as its capital, have the repute of being honest folk.

The Bishops of Quimper were, by virtue of the gift of _le roi Grodlon le
Grave_, the only seigneurs of the city during the middle ages.

XVI

VANNES

Vannes was the ancient capital of the Celtic tribe of the Veneti, its
inhabitants being put to rout by Caesar in 57 B. C. Afterward it became
the Roman town of Duriorigum, and later reverted back to a corruption of
its former name. Christianity having made some progress, a council was
held, and a bishop appointed to the city, and from that time onward its
position in the Christian world appears to have been assured. For
centuries afterward, however, it was the centre of a maelstrom of
internal strife, in which Armoricans, Britons, Franks, and Romans appear
to have been inextricably involved. Then came the Northmen, who burned
the former Cathedral of St. Peter. This was rebuilt in the eleventh
century, and in no small measure forms the foundation of the present
structure, which to-day is the seat of a bishop, suffragan of Rennes.

From this early architectural foundation, to the most florid and
flamboyant of late Gothic, is pretty much the whole range of Mediaeval
architectural style. By no means has a grand or even fine structure
resulted. The old choir, suffering from the stress of time, was pulled
down and rebuilt as late as 1770. Thus, this usually excellently
appointed and constructed detail is here of no worthy rank whatever. The
nave and transepts were completed within the hundred years following
1452, and show the last flights of Gothic toward the heights from which
it afterward fell. Transformation and restoration have frequently been
undertaken, with the result that nowhere is to be seen perhaps greater
inconsistencies. The latest of these examples of a perverted industry is
seen in the nineteenth-century additions to the tower and the west
facade. The resul