till, dark nights, when the
stars are large and brilliant, watch the lights of fishing fleets
clustered together, and hear upon the shore the gentle plash of this
tideless sea.

On such summer nights the _Allee des Soupirs_ is the favourite walk of
the people. Whence its sad, romantic name? Has it seen many sorrows? Do
ghosts of the past haunt it with long-drawn sighs? Has it had more than
its share of Abelards and Heloises, Romeos and Juliets? Has some
sorrowful Atala been borne under its branches to a desert grave, some
Dante mourned here his lost Beatrice, some Petrarch his Laura?

We knew not, and turning from it climbed the ill-paved streets towards
the Cathedral--a Cathedral no longer, for Narbonne, once an
Archbishopric, has been shorn of ecclesiastical dignity.

As far as it went, we found it a fine, interesting, but unfinished
Gothic building of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Little
beyond the choir exists--a splendid fragment, but a fragment only. It
might have been one of the world's wonders.

We entered for the second time in the gloaming, when its great height
was lost in shadows. A few lights about the church and on the altar
deepened the mystery. A few kneeling figures motionless at their
devotions added their quiet pathos to the scene. From the end of the
choir it had the effect of a vast church infinitely impressive. An
immense nave with aisles and pillars and vaulted roofs might stretch
behind us. Such was the intention of the architect, but his plans were
not carried out. In reality there was nothing. Within a few feet came
the narrow outer passage and the dead wall of the west front; but in the
darkness all this was not realised. We only saw the splendid choir, vast
height, graceful outlines, groined roof, pointed arches, and slender
pillars, steeped in the mystery and shadow of a dim religious light by
the few candles gleaming here and there like faint stars in the night.
Some of the painted glass was beautiful, as we had seen earlier in the
day, and much of the sixteenth century flamboyant tracery was very good.
There were many fine tombs and statues.

The Gothic Hotel de Ville close by is partly modern. A portion of it
formed the ancient Archbishop's Palace, and some of this remains, more
especially the old towers. The courtyard has a few interesting outlines,
and the staircase leading to the museum is of broad, massive marble. Up
and down these stairs and corridors was once wont to