Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/246

208 and its fine square towers in the front and its beautiful spire can be seen from miles beyond the limits of Paris. The whole of the exterior of this splendid edifice is beautifully carved, while the general effect of the interior is solemn and imposing. Seventy-five lofty and graceful columns raise the vaulting to a height of 110 ft. while the long cloisters running all round make the view imposing indeed. The organ in the Cathedral is one of the finest in the world and has 5000 pipes, and I do not think I have ever heard anything finer or more imposing than the service in the Notre Dame on one of the Sundays I passed in Paris.

Almost fronting the Notre Dame is the noble pile of buildings called the Palais de Justice which is a Court house, a Police office and a Prison, and also encloses within its walls the ancient Cathedral of La Chapelle. The greater part of this Court house has been built since 1871, when the older structure was almost entirely destroyed by the communist incendiaries. The Galerie des Merciers contains the statues of the four French kings who have distinguished themselves as legislators, viz., Philip Augustus and St. Louis, Charlemagne and Napoleon Bonaparte. The Conciergerie contains almost all that is left of the historic towers where Marie Antoinette were [sic] imprisoned before her execution.

La Sainte Chapelle is one of the most beautiful little churches in existence and was erected in 1245-48 by St. Louis of