The Ducal Palace, now the Palais de Justice, was built in 1475 by Jean de Clamecy, Comte de Nevers, and its Renaissance character was given during the next century, when the Clèves family, and afterwards the Gonzogas of Mantua, held Nevers. In front of the palace there are pleasant gardens, with a view southwards towards Moulins, and to the right (when one faces this prospect) is the Cathedral of St. Cyr. It has a square tower of the Flamboyant period, rather severe in outline, but encrusted with beautiful panelling and statuary, and the south porch belongs to the same period. The curious, almost bizarre, feature of the interior is the apsidal termination at both the east and west ends. At the east end there is a beautiful vaulted ambulatory of the fourteenth century, erected outside the eastern apse of the Romanesque cathedral, built in 1028 and restored and altered in 1194. The early wall-paintings were fortunately preserved by the Gothic architect. At the west end, the Romanesque crypt remains beneath an apse rebuilt in the sixteenth century. The Saint Sépulcre in the crypt is a hideous group of painted figures bending over a representation of Christ. The beautiful nave, rebuilt in 1188, is enriched with caryatides and sculptured figures. Before leaving Nevers the very fine Church of the Cluniac Priory of St. Étienne, begun in 1063 by William I., Count of Nevers, and finished in 1097, should be seen. It is a remarkably fine example of the Burgundian-Romanesque style. The cloisters belong to the thirteenth century. Bernadette Soubirous, the unfortunate heroine of the Lourdes apparition of the Virgin, spent her last years, and died at the early age of thirty-five, in the nunnery of St. Gildard at Nevers. Throughout most of her life, and especially towards the end, her physical infirmities were a great burden to the poor girl. Her grave is in the convent garden, and one marvels that the Roman Catholic authorities did not order a sumptuous tomb in the pilgrimage church at Lourdes! (See p. 235.) The road goes northwards through Pougues-les-Eaux, and runs close to the Loire from the hamlet of La Marche for a considerable distance. The river is broken up with sandy islands covered with low green bushes and thin wire-grass. La Charité is a very picturesque and cheerful little town with several good old houses, and an old stone bridge across the river. The extremely interesting and beautiful Romanesque church belonged to one of the most important Cluniac priories in France, so famed for its good deeds that the place received the name it now bears. A town sprang up round the abbey, and ramparts defended with several towers were built in 1184, but the fortifications standing to-day were rebuilt in 1364. It is surprising that there are any of the defences left when one reads of the frequent sieges and sackings the town endured, particularly during the religious wars of the sixteenth century.