days the fewest remains of antiquity of any place once so
possessed and occupied." The same basin of low hills is
here, but what else remains?

From the walls of Aix the plucky Consul Marius and
his impatient legionaries gazed upon the vast masses of
Cimbri and Teutones who had tasted grapes and wine and
were off for Italy. Day after day they marched past, jeer-
ing the Romans on the wall and offering to take messages

THE ANCIENT PALACE OF THE COUNTS, AIX.

for their wives and sweethearts, and then a hundred thou-
sand of them laid their gashed bodies on the ground a few
miles from here at Pourrières. ² The children at play still
keep alive a memento of Marius and his iron discipline,
but their fathers have pulled down the walls.

Where is the ancient palace of the counts of Provence,
with its Roman foundations and the great hall of the par-
liament upholstered in blue velvet à cartisannes d'or?
Like the walls it has vanished. Plain enough the old

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