The most notable feature of this ancient church is the wall which surrounds or forms the apside. This quintupled _pan_ is separated by four great pillars, in imitation of the Corinthian order; though for that matter they may as well be referred to as genuine antiques--which they probably are--and be done with it. The capitals and the cornice which surmounts them are richly ornamented with sculptured foliage, and, so far as it goes, the whole effect is one of liberality and luxury of treatment. Immediately beside the ruins of this old-time cathedral is the Église St. André of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. X ST. PIERRE DE MONTPELLIER _La Ville de Montpellier_ "Elle est charmante et douce ... Avec son vast ciel, toujours vibrant et pur, * * * * * Elle est charmante avec ses brunes jeunes filles ... le noir diamant de leurs yeux!" --HENRI DE BORNIER. Montpellier is seated upon a hill, its foot washed by two small and unimportant rivers. A seventeenth-century writer has said: "This city is not very ancient, though now it be the biggest, fairest, and richest in Languedoc, after Toulouse." [Illustration: ST. PIERRE _de MONTPELLIER_] From a passage in the records left by St. Bernard, the Abbot of Clairvaux, it is learned that there was a school or seminary of physicians here as early as 1155, and the perfect establishment of a university was known to have existed just previous to the year 1200. This institution was held in great esteem, and in importance second only to Paris. To-day the present establishment merits like approbation, and, sheltered in part in the ancient episcopal palace, and partly enclosing the cathedral of St. Pierre, it has become inseparable from consideration in connection therewith. The records above referred to have this to say concerning the university: "Tho' Physic has the Precendence, yet both Parts of the Law are taught in one of its Colleges, by Four Royal Professors, with the Power of making Licentiates and Doctors." Continuing, he says: "The ceremony of taking the M. D. degree is very imposing; if only the putting on and off, seven times, the old gown of the famous Rabelais." Montpellier was one of "the towns of security" granted by Henry IV. to the Protestants, but Louis XIII., through the suggestions of his cardinals, Richelieu and Mazarin, forced them by arms to surrender this place of protection. The city was taken after a long siege and vigorous defence in 1622. Before the foundation of Montpellier, the episcopal seat was at Maguelonne, the ancient Magalonum of the Romans. The town does not exist to-day, and its memory is only perpetuated by the name Villeneuve les Maguelonne, a small hamlet on the bay of that name, a short distance from Montpellier. The Church had a foothold here in the year 636, but the ferocity of Saracen hordes utterly destroyed all vestiges of the Christian faith in their descent upon the city.