The victualling of the town, thanks to the co-operation between the Municipal and Military Authorities, was effected with regularity. There was never any shortage of bread. The butchers' and grocers' shops remained open. The milk-women and hawkers donned their helmets and continued to push their carts through the streets. The market-women remained at their stalls. The nuns of St. Vincent-de-Paul, whose convent had been largely destroyed, ensured the service of cheap meals, organised by the Municipality for the poor. The undaunted inhabitants had their daily paper ("_L'Eclaireur de l'Est_"), edited by M. Dramas, a courageous journalist, whose printing-house was early wrecked by shell-fire, but who continued almost single-handed to issue his paper. [Illustration: MILK-WOMAN, WITH HELMET, GOING HER ROUND] [Illustration: WINE-CELLAR OF MESSRS. POMMERY USED AS A DWELLING] [Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW, SEEN FROM ST. NICAISE HILL (_p. 102_)] A VISIT TO RHEIMS (_pp. 28 to 120_) =THE CATHEDRAL= (_pp. 28 to 60_) =FIRST ITINERARY= (_pp. 61 to 94_) =The Archi-episcopal Palace, Museum, Church of St. Jacques, Promenades, Town Hall, Place Royale, Musicians' House, Mars Gate, Faubourg Cérès, Church of St. André, Palais-de-Justice, etc.= =SECOND ITINERARY= (_pp. 95 to 120_) =The Lycée, Abbey of St. Pierre-les-Dames, Rue Barbâtre, Church of St. Maurice, Church of St. Remi, Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, etc.= [Illustration: GERMAN PRISONERS CLEARING A STREET (OCT., 1918)] =The Cathedral= The Cathedral of Rheims, which Charles VIII. declared to be "pre-eminent among all the churches of the kingdom," and which a local poet in the reign of Louis XIII. extolled above the seven wonders of the world, is one of the most beautiful Gothic churches extant. Few edifices combine such grandeur, simplicity and grace; still fewer, its characteristic unity and symmetry. The work of at least four architects, the building operations extended over two centuries, yet it has retained rare unity both of plan and style. The whole is so harmonious as to give the impression of being the effort of a single master-mind. =Historical Account= The Cathedral stands on the site of former churches, successively erected between the 5th and 13th centuries. On the night of May 6, 1210, a terrible fire destroyed the then existing edifice, together with a portion of the city. [Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL BEFORE THE WAR] Exactly one year later, Archbishop Aubri de Humbert laid the first stone of a new edifice, which was destined to become the Cathedral of to-day.