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the dwellers in the Castrum Arenarum wore garments striped with azure and gold; only ever kept they on fighting.

But before the close of the Eighth Century, the Saracens disappeared, and the Mayor of the Palace, the Prince of the Franks, Charles-Martel, filled the galleries of the Arena with straw, fagots, and resinous matter, to hasten the destruction of an edifice that had offered a formidable retreat to his enemies. A strange notion that of setting fire to rocks! He must have been helped by a terrible wind, for whilst one part of the Arena has served its fine ancient hues, on that towards the sea, the façade is blackened by smoke, and the stones are scaled by heat. It appears that the Nimois had not kept faith with Charles-Martel, and that the Mayor of the Palace loved not the Nimois.

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In the Eleventh Century a church was built in the Arena, and dedicated to St. Martin. The Viscounts of Nismes also held their Court there then, and they entrusted their redoubtable Castle there, to chosen men,-Knights of the Arena. The edifice now becomes a place with its own laws and privileges; a city by itself, with its own Consuls.

In the Thirteenth Century the towers of the Arena again bristled with warlike engines, pointed against the Albigenses.

In the Fourteenth Century, Charles the Sixth built a castle near the gate of Carmes; and the Arena, deserted by the court and chivalry, became then the haunt of the poorest and least orderly part of the population; a sort of ant-hill, swarming with dirt, disease, and credulity; a veritable Alsatia, where craft eluded law, and violence defied it.

Then came the Sixteenth Century with Francis the First, who, ever knightly and honourable, and a gentleman in all his ideas and ways, sent forth his royal word for the cleansing of the Arena; forthwith great demolitions ensued, and the besom of destruction swept off swarms of the encroachers, but so late as a century ago, the Arena still contained, either under the porticoes or in the body of the building, some seventy or more houses, sheltering nearly a thousand persons.

In closing this sketch of the Arena of Nismes, we will say that it would be well if we had as ready means of ingress and egress, to and from our churches and large public buildings, as were here accorded to the populace. Thirty openings, called Vomitories, gave passage to the spectators; it is computed that twenty thousand persons could pour in, or out, of the building through them, in the space of five minutes.

There is much more to be said of Nismes, and the present little sketch is felt to be meagre ;

but if it give satisfaction to any readers, and induce them to extend their summer tour from Paris down to the Plain of the Vistre, they can fill up the deficiencies for themselves, and they will be sure to return with pleasant remembrances of that ancient city, heightened in interest by the contrast with those afforded by the brilliant display of the marvels of modern art and industry at Paris in the Exhibition of 1855.

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