Page:Costello - A pilgrimage to Auvergne from Picardy to Velay - A 30154 1.pdf/19

Rh exclusive affection. We indulged him by remaining till his favourite Bertine rang the hour of seven in the evening, and departed nearly stunned by the sound which she sent from her seclusion half over the Pas de Calais.

The cathedral of Nétre Dame at St. Omer and the church of St. Denis have both features worthy of admiration, and are clean, well kept, and well restored. The Rue Royale is wide, open, and very long, but morne and deserted, and the stones of the pavement so pointed and rugged that it would appear as if there was no traffic.

We continued our route, which pointed to Champagne, by Bethune, the church of which is singular and possesses much beauty. The roof is very fine and the pillars of great delicacy, but the interior is disfigured by the paltry oraments of itsaltars. The belfry tower presents a remarkable and picturesque appearance, and the little town is altogether clean, wide and handsome.

Our compagnon de voyage, called Hortense by a dandy elderly gentleman in a flowered dressing-gown, who put her into the coach, was a remarkably pretty girl, so young that we were greatly surprised when she proclaimed herself a married woman, going to Bapaume to purchase mourning, for which it is celebrated, for her family, on occasion of the death of her husband's