[Illustration:  A BRITTANY SERVANT.]

The next morning we awoke to grey skies.  “It always rains at Quimper,” said Catherine, and she was only quoting a proverb.  There was something close and oppressive and depressing about the town.  The air was enervating.  The hotels were unfavourably placed.  The quays were commonplace—­for Brittany.  There was nothing romantic or beautiful about the river, which, I have said, resembled a canal.  Its waters were black and sluggish, confined, as they probably were, by locks.  In front rose high cliffs which shut out the sky and the horizon and heaven’s glorious oxygen.  We many of us know what it is to dwell for some time under the shadow of a great mountain.  Gradually it seems to oppress us and crush down upon us until we feel that we must get away from it or die of suffocation.  Here there was a heaviness in the air which taxed all our mental resources, our reserve of energy, our amiability to the utmost.

The cathedral by daylight should be our first care, and we found it worthy of all the effect it had produced upon us last night.  All its mystery and magic had gone, but all the beauty and perfection of architecture remained.  Certainly we had seen nothing like it in Brittany.

It is dedicated to St. Corentin, a holy man who is supposed to have come over from Cornwall in the very early ages of the Christian era.  Quimper was then the capital of the Cornouaille, a corruption, as we can easily trace, of the word Cornwall.  The cathedral, commenced about the year 1239, was only completed in 1515.  The spires are modern, but of such excellent workmanship and design that they in no way interfere with the general effect.  The harmony of the whole is indeed remarkable when it is considered that it was nearly three centuries in process of construction.  The west front is very fine and stately, with deep portals magnificently sculptured.  It was commenced in 1424, and is surmounted by two flamboyant windows, one above the other.  Within the contour of the arch is a triple row of angels, sculptured with a great deal of artistic finish.  Time, however, whilst beautifying it, has robbed it of some of its fineness.

The towers were also commenced in 1424, and the great bell of the clock which they contain dates from 1312.  The north and south doorways are both fine.  The latter is dedicated to St. Catherine, and a figure of the saint adorns a niche in the left buttress.  Both portals possess scrolls bearing inscriptions or mottoes, such as, A ma Vie, one of the mottoes of the House of Brittany.  In the pediment of the west doorway is the finest heraldic sculpturing that the Middle Ages of Brittany produced.  In the centre, the lion of Montfort holds the banner of Brittany, on which may be read the motto of Duke John V.:  Malo au riche duc.  In the corner to the left are the arms of Bishop Bertrand de Rosmadec, stamped with the mitre and crozier, and the motto, En bon Espoir.  Many other mottoes, such as Perac (Wherefore?); A l’aventure; Leal a ma foy; En Dieu m’attens, belonging to different lords of Brittany, will also be found here.