period than the rest of the building. The interior is of great beauty,
and no less so the facade and side porch, both very richly decorated.
One's first feeling is of amazement to find such a church in such a
place; but this dingy, sleepy little town was once of some importance
and still does a good deal of trade. There is a very large Jewish
community here, as in many other towns of Alsace. Whether they deserve
their unpopularity is a painful question not lightly to be taken up.

[Illustration: COLMAR]

Leisurely travellers bound homeward from Mulhouse will do well to diverge
from the direct Paris line and join it at Dijon, by way of Belfort--the
heroic city of Belfort, with its colossal lion, hewn out of the solid
rock--the little Protestant town of Montbeliard, and Besancon. Belfort is
well worth seeing, and the "Territoire de Belfort" is to all intents and
purposes a new department, formed from that remnant of the Haut Rhin
saved to France after the war of 1870-71. The "Territoire de Belfort"
comprises upwards of sixty thousand hectares, and a population, chiefly
industrial, of nearly seventy thousand inhabitants, spread over many
communes and hamlets. There is a picturesque and romantic bit of country
between Montbeliard and Besancon, well worth seeing, if only from the
railway windows. But the tourist who wants to make no friendly calls on
the way, whose chief aim is to get over the ground quickly, must avoid
the _detour_ by all means, as the trains are slow and the stoppages
many.

[Illustration: SKETCH BY GUSTAVE DORE, AETAT EIGHT YEARS]