ean sun glances through a series of long
lances, ... then and then only does the Cathedral of Saint-Trophime
offer any inducement to linger within its non-impressive walls."

It may not be denied that, together with nearly all the Cathedrals of
Provence, this interior has suffered from the addition of inharmonious
styles. The most serious of these is its Gothic choir of the XV century,
which a certain Cardinal Louis Allemand applied to the narrower
Romanesque naves. With irregular ambulatory, chapels of various sizes,
and a general incongruity of plan, this construction has no
architectural importance except that of a prominent place in the
church's worship. The remaining excrescences, Gothic chapels, Ionic
pilasters, elliptical tribune, and the like, are happily hidden along
the side aisles or in the transepts; and during the restoration of
Revoil the naves were relieved of the disfiguring "improvements" of the
XVII century, and stand to-day in much of their fine old simplicity.
Beyond the fifth bay, and rising in the tower, is the dome of dignified
Provencal form that rests on the lower arches of the crossing. Small
clerestory windows cast sheets of pale light on the plain piers,
rectangular and heavy, that rise to support a tunnel vault and divide
the church into three naves of great and slender height.

The stern, ascetic style of the XI and XII centuries has given the nave
piers mere small, plain bands as capitals, and for churchly decoration
has allowed only a moulding of acanthus leaves placed high and unnoticed
at the vaulting's base. There is no pleasing detail and no charming
fancy; but a fine, exquisite loftiness, a faultless balance of
proportion, are in this severe interior, and its solemn and majestic
beauty is not surpassed in the Southern Romanesque.

[Illustration: LEFT DETAIL, PORTAL.--ARLES.]

Beyond the south transept, a short passage and a few steps lead to the
Cloisters, the most famous of Provence, perhaps of France. Large,
graceful, and magnificent in wealth of carving, they have yet none of
the poetic charms that linger around many a smaller Cloister. The
vaultings are not more beautiful than other vaults less known; although
they have the help of the great piers, the little, slender columns seem
too light to support so much expanse of roof, and even the church's
tower, square and high, looks dwarfed when seen across the close. The
very spaciousness is solitary, and the long vista of the walk