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diff --git a/18670.txt b/18670.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c1c199 --- /dev/null +++ b/18670.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4206 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Bruges and West Flanders, by George W. T. +Omond, Illustrated by Amédée Forestier + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Bruges and West Flanders + + +Author: George W. T. Omond + + + +Release Date: June 23, 2006 [eBook #18670] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRUGES AND WEST FLANDERS*** + + +E-text prepared by Robert J. Hall + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18670-h.htm or 18670-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/7/18670/18670-h/18670-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/7/18670/18670-h.zip) + + + + + +BRUGES AND WEST FLANDERS + +Painted by + +AMEDEE FORESTIER + +Described by + +G. W. T. OMOND + +1906 + + + + + + +[Illustration: A FLEMISH COUNTRY GIRL] + + + + +Preface + +There is no part of Europe more wanting in what is known as 'scenery' +than Flanders; and those who journey there must spend most of their +time in the old towns which are still so strangely mediaeval in +their aspect, or in country places which are worth seeing only +because of their connection with some event in history--Nature +has done so little for them. Thus the interest and the attraction +of Flanders and the Flemish towns are chiefly historical. But it +would be impossible to compress the history of such places as Bruges, +Ypres, Furnes, or Nieuport within the limits of a few pages, except +at the cost of loading them with a mass of dry facts. Accordingly +the plan adopted in preparing the letterpress which accompanies Mr. +Forestier's drawings has been to select a few leading incidents, +and give these at some length. + +The Flemish School of Painting and Architecture has been so well +and frequently described that it would have been mere affectation +to make more than a few passing allusions to that topic. + +Some space has, however, been devoted to an account of the recent +development of the Flemish littoral, which has been so remarkable +during the last quarter of a century. + + + + +Contents + +CHAPTER I + +THE MARKET-PLACE AND BELFRY--EARLY HISTORY OF BRUGES + +CHAPTER II + +BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FER--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER OF CHARLES THE GOOD + +CHAPTER III + +THE BEGUINAGE--CHURCHES--THE RELIC OF THE HOLY BLOOD + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BRUGES MATINS--BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS + +CHAPTER V + +DAMME--THE SEA-FIGHT AT SLUIS--SPLENDOUR OF BRUGES IN THE MIDDLE +AGES--THE FALL AND LOSS OF TRADE + +CHAPTER VI + +'BRUGES LA MORTE' + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PLAIN OF WEST FLANDERS--YPRES + +CHAPTER VIII + +FURNES--THE PROCESSION OF PENITENTS + +CHAPTER IX + +NIEUPORT--THE BATTLE OF THE DUNES + +CHAPTER X + +THE COAST OF FLANDERS + +CHAPTER XI + +COXYDE--THE SCENERY OF THE DUNES + +INDEX + + + + +List of Illustrations + + 1. A Flemish Country Girl + 2. Bruges: A Corner of the Market on the Grand' Place + 3. Bell-ringer Playing a Chime + 4. Bruges: Porte d'Ostende + 5. Bruges: Rue de l'Ane Aveugle (showing end of Town + Hall and Bridge connecting it with Palais de + Justice) + 6. Bruges: Quai du Rosaire + 7. Bruges: The Beguinage + 8. Bruges: Quai des Marbriers + 9. A Flemish Young Woman + 10. A Flemish Burgher + 11. Bruges: Quai du Miroir + 12. Bruges: View of the Palais du Franc. + 13. Bruges: Maison du Pelican (Almshouse) + 14. Bruges: Vegetable Market + 15. The Flemish Plain + 16. Duinhoek: Interior of a Farmhouse + 17. Adinkerque: At the Kermesse + 18. A Farmsteading + 19. Ypres: Place du Musee (showing Top Part of the + Belfry) + 20. Ypres: Arcade under the Nieuwerk + 21. Furnes: Grand' Place and Belfry + 22. Furnes: Peristyle of Town Hall and Palais de Justice + 23. Nieuport: Interior of Church + 24. Furnes: Tower of St. Nicholas + 25. Furnes: In Ste. Walburge's Church + 26. Nieuport: A Fair Parishioner + 27. Nieuport: Hall and Vicarage + 28. Nieuport: The Quay, with Eel-boats and Landing-stages + 29. Nieuport: The Town Hall + 30. Nieuport: Church Porch (Evensong) + 31. The Dunes: A Stormy Evening + 32. An Old Farmer + 33. La Panne: Interior of a Flemish Inn + 34. La Panne: A Flemish Inn--Playing Skittles + 35. Coxyde: A Shrimper on Horseback + 36. Coxyde: A Shrimper + 37. Adinkerque: Village and Canal + + + + +THE MARKET-PLACE AND BELFRY--EARLY HISTORY OF BRUGES + + + + +BRUGES AND WEST FLANDERS + +CHAPTER I + +THE MARKET-PLACE AND BELFRY--EARLY HISTORY OF BRUGES + +Every visitor to 'the quaint old Flemish city' goes first to the +Market-Place. On Saturday mornings the wide space beneath the mighty +Belfry is full of stalls, with white canvas awnings, and heaped up +with a curious assortment of goods. Clothing of every description, +sabots and leathern shoes and boots, huge earthenware jars, pots +and pans, kettles, cups and saucers, baskets, tawdry-coloured +prints--chiefly of a religious character--lamps and candlesticks, +the cheaper kinds of Flemish pottery, knives and forks, carpenters' +tools, and such small articles as reels of thread, hatpins, tape, +and even bottles of coarse scent, are piled on the stalls or spread +out on the rough stones wherever there is a vacant space. Round +the stalls, in the narrow spaces between them, the people move +about, talking, laughing, and bargaining. Their native Flemish +is the tongue they use amongst themselves; but many of them speak +what passes for French at Bruges, or even a few words of broken +English, if some unwary stranger from across the Channel is rash +enough to venture on doing business with these sharp-witted, plausible +folk. + +At first sight this Market-Place, so famed in song, is a disappointment. +The north side is occupied by a row of seventeenth-century houses +turned into shops and third-rate cafes. On the east is a modern +post-office, dirty and badly ventilated, and some half-finished +Government buildings. On the west are two houses which were once +of some note--the Cranenburg, from the windows of which, in olden +times, the Counts of Flanders, with the lords and ladies of their +Court, used to watch the tournaments and pageants for which Bruges +was celebrated, and in which Maximilian was imprisoned by the burghers +in 1488; and the Hotel de Bouchoute, a narrow, square building +of dark red brick, with a gilded lion over the doorway. But the +Cranenburg, once the 'most magnificent private residence in the +Market-Place,' many years ago lost every trace of its original +splendour, and is now an unattractive hostelry, the headquarters +of a smoking club; while the Hotel de Bouchoute, turned into a +clothier's shop, has little to distinguish it from its commonplace +neighbours. Nevertheless, + + 'In the Market-Place of Bruges stands the Belfry old and brown; + Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches o'er the town.' + +It redeems the Market-Place from mediocrity. How long ago the first +belfry tower of Bruges was built is unknown, but this at least +is certain, that in the year 1280 a fire, in which the ancient +archives of the town perished, destroyed the greater part of an +old belfry, which some suppose may have been erected in the ninth +century. On two subsequent occasions, in the fifteenth and eighteenth +centuries, the present Belfry, erected on the ruins of the former +structure, was damaged by fire; and now it stands on the south side +of the Market-Place, rising 350 feet above the Halles, a massive +building of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, solemn, +weather-beaten, and majestic. 'For six hundred years,' it has been +said, 'this Belfry has watched over the city of Bruges. It has +beheld her triumphs and her failures, her glory and her shame, +her prosperity and her gradual decay, and, in spite of so many +vicissitudes, it is still standing to bear witness to the genius +of our forefathers, to awaken memories of old times and admiration +for one of the most splendid monuments of civic architecture which +the Middle Ages has produced.'[*] + +[Footnote *: Gilliat-Smith, _The Story of Bruges_, p. 169 (Dent +and Co., London, 1901). Mr. Gilliat-Smith's book is a picturesque +account of Bruges in the Middle Ages. Of the English works relating +to Bruges, there is nothing better than Mr. Wilfrid Robinson's +_Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, a short and clear history, coming +down to modern times (Louis de Plancke, Bruges, 1899).] + +In olden times watchmen were always on duty on the Belfry to give +warning if enemies approached or fire broke out in any part of the +town, a constant source of danger when most of the houses were +built of wood. Even in these more prosaic days the custom of keeping +watch and ward unceasingly is still maintained, and if there is a +fire, the alarum-bell clangs over the city. All day, from year's +end to year's end, the chimes ring every quarter of an hour; and +all night, too, during the wildest storms of winter, when the wind +shrieks round the tower; and in summer, when the old town lies +slumbering in the moonlight. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. A corner of the Market on the Grand' Place.] + +From the top of the Belfry one looks down on what is practically +a mediaeval city. The Market-Place seems to lose its modern aspect +when seen from above; and all round there is nothing visible but +houses with high-pointed gables and red roofs, intersected by canals, +and streets so narrow that they appear to be mere lanes. Above +these rise, sometimes from trees and gardens, churches, convents, +venerable buildings, the lofty spire of Notre Dame, the tower of +St. Sauveur, the turrets of the Gruthuise, the Hospital of St. John, +famous for its paintings by Memlinc, the Church of Ste. Elizabeth in +the grove of the Beguinage, the pinnacles of the Palais du Franc, +the steep roof of the Hotel de Ville, the dome of the Couvent des +Dames Anglaises, and beyond that to the east the slender tower which +rises above the Guildhouse of the Archers of St. Sebastian. The walls +which guarded Bruges in troublous times have disappeared, though +five of the old gateways remain; but the town is still contained +within the limits which it had reached at the close of the thirteenth +century. + +Behind the large square of the Halles, from which the Belfry rises, +is the Rue du Vieux Bourg, the street of the Ouden Burg, or old +fort; and to this street the student of history must first go if +he wishes to understand what tradition, more or less authentic, +has to say about the earliest phases in the strange, eventful past +of Bruges. The wide plain of Flanders, the northern portion of the +country which we now call Belgium, was in ancient times a dreary +fenland, the haunt of wild beasts and savage men; thick, impenetrable +forests, tracts of barren sand, sodden marshes, covered it; and +sluggish streams, some whose waters never found their way to the +sea, ran through it. One of these rivulets, called the Roya, was +crossed by a bridge, to defend which, according to early tradition, +a fort, or 'burg,' was erected in the fourth century. This fort +stood on an islet formed by the meeting of the Roya with another +stream, called the Boterbeke, and a moat which joined the two. We +may suppose that near the fort, which was probably a small building +of rough stones, or perhaps merely a wooden stockade, a few huts +were put up by people who came there for protection, and as time +went on the settlement increased. 'John of Ypres, Abbot of St. +Bertin,' says Mr. Robinson, 'who wrote in the fourteenth century, +describes how Bruges was born and christened: "Very soon pedlars +began to settle down under the walls of the fort to supply the +wants of its inmates. Next came merchants, with their valuable +wares. Innkeepers followed, who began to build houses, where those +who could not find lodging in the fort found food and shelter. +Those who thus turned away from the fort would say, 'Let us go to +the bridge.' And when the houses near the bridge became so numerous +as to form a town, it kept as its proper name the Flemish word +_Brugge_." + +[Illustration: BELL-RINGER PLAYING A CHIME.] + +The small island on which this primitive township stood was bounded +on the south and east by the Roya, on the north by the Boterbeke, +and on the west by the moat joining these two streams. The Roya +still flows along between the site of the old burg and an avenue +of lime-trees called the Dyver till it reaches the end of the Quai +du Rosaire, when it turns to the north. A short distance beyond +this point it is vaulted over, and runs on beneath the streets +and houses of the town. The Rue du Vieux Bourg is built over the +course of the Boterbeke, which now runs under it and under the Belfry +(erected on foundations sunk deep into the bed of the stream), until +it joins the subterranean channel of the Roya at the south-east +corner of the Market-Place. The moat which joined these two streams +and guarded the west side of the island was filled up long ago, +and its bed is now covered by the Rue Neuve, which connects the +Rue du Vieux Bourg with the Dyver. + +Thus the boundaries of early Bruges can easily be traced; but nothing +remains of the ancient buildings, though we read of a warehouse, +booths, and a prison, besides the dwelling-houses of the townsfolk. +The elements, at least, of civic life were there; and tradition +says that in or near the village, for it was nothing more, some +altars of the Christian faith were set up during the seventh and +eighth centuries. Trade, too, soon began to flourish, and grew +rapidly as the population of the place increased. The Roya, flowing +eastwards, fell into the Zwijn, an arm of the sea, which then ran +up close to the town, and on which stood Damme, now a small inland +village, but once a busy port crowded with shipping. The commercial +life of Bruges depended on the Zwijn; and that much business was +done before the close of the ninth century is shown by the fact +that Bruges had then a coinage of its own.[*] It was from such +small beginnings that this famous, 'Venice of the North' arose. + +[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, _Bruges Ancienne et Moderne_, +pp. 7, 8, 9.] + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Porte d'Ostende.] + + + + +BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FRE--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER OF CHARLES THE GOOD + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FER--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER OF CHARLES THE GOOD + +Towards the end of the ninth and at the beginning of the tenth +century great changes took place on the banks of the Roya, and +the foundations of Bruges as we know it now were laid. Just as +in the memorable years 1814 and 1815 the empire of Napoleon fell +into fragments, and princes and statesmen hastened to readjust the +map of Europe in their own interests, so in the ninth century the +empire of Charlemagne was crumbling away; and in the scramble for +the spoils, the Normans carried fire and sword into Flanders. Charles +the Bald, King of the Franks, at this crisis called to his aid the +strong arm of Baldwin, a Flemish chief of whose ancestry we know +little, but who soon became famous as Baldwin Bras-de-Fer--Baldwin +of the Iron Arm, so called because, in peace or war, he was never +seen without his coat of mail. This grim warrior had fallen in +love with the daughter of Charles the Bald, Judith, who had been +already twice married, first to the Saxon King Ethelwulf (after +the death of his first wife Osberga, mother of Alfred the Great) and +secondly to Ethelbald, on whose death she left England and went +to live at Senlis. Baldwin persuaded the Princess to run away with +him; and they were married without the knowledge of her father, to +escape whose vengeance the culprits fled to Rome. Pope Nicholas I. +brought about a reconciliation; and Charles not only pardoned his +son-in-law, but appointed him ruler of Flanders under the title of +Marquis, which was afterwards changed into that of Count. It is to +the steel-clad Baldwin Bras-de-Fer that the Counts of Flanders trace +the origin of their title; and he was, moreover, the real founder of +that Bruges which rose to such glory in the Middle Ages, and is +still, though fallen from its high estate, the picturesque capital +of West Flanders, whither artists flock to wander about amidst the +canals and bridges, the dismantled ramparts, the narrow streets +with their curious houses, and the old buildings which bear such +eloquent testimony to the ruin which long ago overtook what was +once an opulent and powerful city. + +When the wrath of his father-in-law had been appeased, Baldwin, now +responsible for the defence of Flanders, came to Bruges with his +wife, and there established his Court. But the old burg, it seems, +was not thought capable of holding out against the Normans, who +could easily land on the banks of the Zwijn; and Baldwin, therefore, +set about building a new stronghold on the east side of the old +burg, and close to it. It was surrounded partly by the main stream +of the Roya, and partly by backwaters flowing from it. Here he +built a fortress for himself and his household, a church dedicated +to St. Donatian, a prison, and a 'ghiselhuis,' or house for the +safe keeping of hostages. The whole was enclosed by walls, built +close to the edge of the surrounding waters. + +The Roya is now vaulted over where it ran along the west side of +Baldwin's stronghold, separating it from the original burg, and +the watercourses which defended it on the north and east are filled +up; but the stream on the south still remains in the shape of the +canal which skirts the Quai des Marbriers, from which a bridge +leads by a narrow lane, called the Rue de l'Ane Aveugle, under +an arch of gilded stonework, into the open space now known as the +Place du Bourg. Here we are at the very heart of Bruges, on the +ground where Baldwin's stronghold stood, with its four gates and +drawbridges, and the high walls frowning above the homes of the +townsmen clustering round them. The aspect of the place is completely +changed since those early days. A grove of chestnut-trees covers +the site of the Church of St. Donatian; not a stone remains of +Bras-de-Fer's rude palace; and instead of the prison and the +hostage-house, there are the Hotel de Ville, now more than five +hundred years old, from whose windows the Counts of Flanders swore +obedience to the statutes and privileges of the town, the Palais +de Justice, and the dark crypt beneath the chapel which shelters +the mysterious Relic of the Holy Blood. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Rue de l'Ane Aveugle (showing end of Town +Hall and Bridge connecting it with Palais de Justice).] + +In summer it is a warm, quiet, pleasant spot. Under the shade of +the trees, near the statue of Van Eyck, women selling flowers sit +beside rows of geraniums, roses, lilies, pansies, which give a +touch of bright colour to the scene. Artists from all parts of +Europe set up their easels and paint. Young girls are gravely busy +with their water-colours. Black-robed nuns and bare-footed Carmelites +pass silently along. Perhaps some traveller from America opens his +guide-book to study the map of a city which had risen to greatness +long before Columbus crossed the seas. A few English people hurry +across, and pass under the archway of the Rue de l'Ane Aveugle +on the way to their tennis-ground beyond the Porte de Gand. The +sunshine glitters on the gilded facade of the Palais de Justice, +and lights up the statues in their niches on the front of the Hotel +de Ville. There is no traffic, no noise. Everything is still and +peaceful. The chimes, ever and anon ringing out from the huge Belfry, +which rises high above the housetops to the west, alone break the +silence. + +This is Bruges sleeping peacefully in old age, lulled to rest by +the sound of its own carillon. But it is easy, standing there, to +recall the past, and to fancy the scenes which took place from time +to time throughout the long period of foreign danger and internal +strife. We can imagine the Bourg, now so peaceful, full of armed +men, rushing to the Church of St. Donatian on the morning when +Charles the Good was slain; how, in later times, the turbulent +burghers, fiery partisans of rival factions, Clauwerts shouting +for the Flemish Lion, and Leliarts marshalled under the Lily of +France, raged and threatened; how the stones were splashed with blood +on the day of the Bruges Matins, when so many Frenchmen perished; or +what shouts were raised when the Flemish host came back victorious +from the Battle of the Golden Spurs. + +Though every part of Bruges--not only the Bourg, but the great +Market-Place, and the whole maze of streets and lanes and canals +of which it consists--has a story of its own, some of these stories +stand out by themselves; and amongst these one of the most dramatic +is the story of the death of Charles the Good. + +More than two hundred and fifty years had passed away since the +coming of Baldwin Bras-de-Fer; Bruges had spread far beyond the +walls of the Bourg; and Charles, who had succeeded his cousin Baldwin +VII., was Count of Flanders. He was called 'the Good' because of +his just rule and simple life, and still more, perhaps, because +he clothed and fed the poor--not only in Bruges, but throughout +all Flanders. The common people loved him, but his charities gave +offence to the rich. He had, moreover, incurred the special enmity +of the Erembalds, a powerful family, who, though not of noble origin +themselves, were connected by marriage with many noble houses. They +had supported his claim to the throne of Flanders, which had been +disputed, and he had rewarded their services by heaping favours +on them. But, after a time, they began to oppose the methods of +government which Charles applied to Flanders. They resented most +of all one of his decrees which made it unlawful for persons not +in his service to carry arms in time of peace. This decree, which +was pronounced in order to prevent the daily scenes of violence +which Charles abhorred, was declared by the Erembalds to be an +interference with Flemish liberty. It did not affect them personally, +for they held office under the Count; but they none the less opposed +it vehemently. + +While Charles was thus on bad terms with the Erembalds, a deadly +feud existed between them and the Straetens, another notable family, +which grew to such a height that the rival clans made open war upon +each other, pillaging, burning, and slaying after the manner of +these times. Charles called the leaders of both sides before him, +and made them swear to keep the peace; but when he was at Ypres in +the autumn of 1126, a complaint was laid before him that Bertulf, +head of the Erembalds, who was also Provost of St. Donatian's, +had sent one of his nephews, Burchard by name, on a raid into the +lands of the Straetens, whose cattle he had carried off. On hearing +of this outrage, Charles gave orders that Burchard's house should +be pulled down, and that he should compensate the Straetens for +their losses. The Erembalds were powerless to resist this order, +and Burchard's house was razed to the ground. + +It has been said that this was only the beginning of strong measures +which Charles was about to take against the Erembalds; but there +is no certainty as to what his intentions really were. He then +lived in the Loove, a mansion which he had built in the Bourg at +Bruges, on the site now occupied by the Palais de Justice; and +there, on his return from Ypres, he had a meeting with some of the +Erembalds, who had been sent to plead on behalf of Burchard. As +to what took place at this interview there is some doubt. According +to one account, Charles drank wine with the delegates, and granted +a free pardon to Burchard, on condition that he kept the peace. +According to another account, his demeanour was so unbending that +the Erembalds left his presence full of angry suspicions, which +they communicated to their friends. Whatever may have happened, +they were bent on mischief. Burchard was sent for, and a secret +consultation was held, after which Burchard and a chosen few assembled +in a house on the Bourg and arranged their plans. This was on the +night of March 1, 1127. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Quai du Rosaire.] + +At break of day next morning a cold, heavy mist hung low over Bruges, +and in the Bourg everything was shrouded in darkness. But already +some poor men were waiting in the courtyard of the Loove, to whom +Charles gave alms on his way to early Mass in the Church of St. +Donatian. Then he went along a private passage which led into the +church, and knelt in prayer before the Lady Altar. It was his custom +to give help to the needy when in church, and he had just put some +money into the hands of a poor woman, when suddenly she called out: +'Beware, Sir Count!' He turned quickly round, and there, sword +in hand, was Burchard, who had stolen up the dim aisle to where +Charles was kneeling. The next moment Burchard struck, and Charles +fell dead upon the steps of the altar. + +Then followed a scene of wild confusion. The woman ran out into +the Bourg, calling loudly that the Count was slain. In the midst +of the uproar some of the royal household fled in terror, while +others who entered the church were butchered by the Erembalds, +who next attacked the Loove, and, having pillaged it, rushed over +Bruges, slaughtering without mercy all who dared to oppose them. + +After some time one of the Count's servants ventured to cover the +dead body with a winding-sheet, and to surround it with lighted +tapers; and there it remained lying on the pavement, until at last +the Erembalds, who were afraid to bury it in Bruges lest the sight +of the tomb of Charles the Good should one day rouse the townsmen +to avenge his death, sent a message to Ghent, begging the Abbot +of St. Peter's to take it away and bury it in his own church. The +Abbot came to Bruges, and before dawn the body of the murdered Count +was being stealthily carried along the aisles of St. Donatian's, +when a great crowd rushed in, declaring that the bones of Charles +must be allowed to rest in peace at Bruges. The arches rang with +cries, chairs were overturned, stools and candlesticks were thrown +about, as the people, pressing and struggling round the Abbot and +his servants, told Bertulf, with many an oath, that he must yield +to their wishes. At last the Provost submitted, and on the morrow, +just two days after the murder, the body of Charles was buried before +the Lady Altar, on the very spot, it is said, where the statue of +Van Eyck now stands under the trees in the Bourg. + +The triumph of the Erembalds was short, for the death of Charles +the Good was terribly avenged by his friends, who came to Bruges +at the head of a large force. A fierce struggle took place at the +Rue de l'Ane Aveugle, where many were slain. The Erembalds were +driven into the Bourg, the gates of which they shut; but an entrance +was forced, and, after desperate fighting, some thirty of them, all +who remained alive, were compelled to take refuge, first in the +nave and then in the tower of the Church of St. Donatian, where, +defending themselves with the courage of despair, they made a last +stand, until, worn out by fatigue and hunger, they surrendered +and came down. Bertulf the Provost, Burchard, and a few of the +other ringleaders had fled some days before, and so escaped, for +a time at least, the fate of their companions, who, having been +imprisoned in a dungeon, were taken to the top of the church tower +and flung down one by one on to the stones of the Bourg. 'Their +bodies,' says Mr. Gilliat-Smith, 'were thrown into a marsh beyond +the village of St. Andre, and for years afterwards no man after +nightfall would willingly pass that way.' In the Church of St. +Sauveur there is a costly shrine containing what are said to be the +bones of Charles the Good, taken from their first resting-place, +at which twice every year a festival is held in commemoration of +his virtues. + + + + +THE BEGUINAGE--CHURCHES--THE RELIC OF THE HOLY BLOOD + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE BEGUINAGE--CHURCHES--THE RELIC OF THE HOLY BLOOD + +Bruges is one of the most Catholic towns in Catholic Flanders. +Convents and religious houses of all sorts have always flourished +there, and at present there are no less than forty-five of these +establishments. Probably one of the most interesting to English +people is the Couvent des Dames Anglaises, which was founded in +1629 by the English Augustinian Nuns of Ste. Monica's Convent at +Louvain. Its chapel, with a fine dome of the eighteenth century, +contains a beautiful altar built of marbles brought from Egypt, +Greece, and Persia; and amongst its possessions is the rosary of +Catherine of Braganza (Queen of Charles II. of England), who died +at Bruges. + +And then there is the Beguinage. There are Beguinages at Amsterdam +and Breda, but with this exception of Holland, Belgium is now the +only country in Europe where these societies, the origin of whose +name is uncertain, are to be found. They consist of spinsters or +widows, who, though bound by a few conventual oaths during their +connection with the society, may return to the world. On entering +each sister pays a sum of money to the general funds, and at first +lives for a time along with other novices. At the end of this term +of probation they are at liberty to occupy one of the small dwellings +within the precincts of the Beguinage, and keep house for themselves. +They spend their time in sewing, making lace, educating poor children, +visiting the sick, or any form of good works for which they may +have a taste. They are under a Mother Superior, the 'Grande Dame,' +appointed by the Bishop of the diocese, and must attend the services +in the church of their Beguinage. Thus the Beguine, living generally +in a house of her own, and free to reenter the world, occupies a +different position from the nuns of the better-known Orders, though +so long as she remains a member of her society she is bound by the +vows of chastity and obedience to her ecclesiastical superiors. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. The Beguinage.] + +The Beguinage at Bruges, founded in the thirteenth century, is +situated near the Minnewater, or Lac d'Amour, which every visitor +is taken to see. This sheet of placid water, bordered by trees, +which was a harbour in the busy times, is one of the prettiest +bits of Bruges; and they say that if you go there at midnight, +and stand upon the bridge which crosses it on the south, any wish +which you may form will certainly come to pass. It is better to go +alone, for strict silence is necessary to insure the working of +this charm. A bridge over the water which runs from the Lac d'Amour +leads through a gateway into the Beguinage, where a circle of small +houses--whitewashed, with stepped gables, and green woodwork on the +windows--surrounds a lawn planted with tall trees. There is a view +of the spire of Notre Dame beyond the roofs, a favourite subject for +the painters who come here in numbers on summer afternoons. The +Church of Ste. Elizabeth, an unpretentious building, stands on one +side of the lawn; and within it, many times a day, the Sisters may +be seen on their knees repeating the Offices of the Church. When +the service is finished they rise, remove their white head-coverings, +and return demurely to their quaint little homes. + +Bruges has, needless to say, many churches, but nothing which can +be compared to the magnificent Cathedral of Antwerp, to the imposing +front of Ste. Gudule at Brussels, or to the huge mass which forms +such a conspicuous landmark for several leagues round Malines. +Still, some of the churches are not without interest: the Cathedral +of St. Sauveur, where the stalls of the Knights of the Order of +the Golden Fleece, which was founded at Bruges, are to be seen in +the choir, and over one of them the arms of Edward IV. of England; +the curious little Church of Jerusalem, with its 'Holy Sepulchre,' +an exact copy of the traditionary grave in Palestine--a dark vault, +entered by a passage so low that one must crawl through it, and +where a light burns before a figure which lies there wrapped in +a linen cloth; and the Church of Notre Dame, which contains some +treasures, such as a lovely white marble statue of the Virgin and +Child, from the chisel of Michael Angelo; the tombs of Charles +the Bold of Burgundy and his daughter--the 'Gentle Mary,' whose +untimely death at Bruges in 1482, after a short married life, saved +her from witnessing the misfortunes which clouded the last years +of her husband, the Archduke Maximilian; and a portion of the Holy +Cross, which came to Bruges in the fifteenth century. The story +goes that a rich merchant, a Dutchman from Dordrecht, Schoutteeten +by name, who lived at Bruges, was travelling through Syria in the +year 1380. One day, when journeying with a caravan, he saw a man +hiding something in a wood, and, following him, discovered that +it was a box, which he suspected might contain something valuable. +Mijnheer Schoutteeten appropriated the box, and carried it home +from Syria to Dordrecht, where a series of miracles began to occur +of such a nature as to make it practically certain that the box +(or some wood which it contained, for on this point the legend is +vague) was a part of the true Cross! In course of time Schoutteeten +died in the odour of sanctity, having on his death-bed expressed a +wish that the wood which he had brought from the East should be +given to the Church of Notre Dame at Bruges. His widow consoled +herself by taking a second husband, who, Uutenhove by name, fulfilled +the pious request of his predecessor, and thus another relic was +added to the large collection which is preserved in the various +churches and religious houses of Bruges. It was brought to Flanders +in the year 1473, and must have been a source of considerable revenue +to the Church since then. + +The buildings of Notre Dame, with the well-known Gruthuise Mansion +which adjoins them, and the singularly graceful spire, higher than +the Belfry tower, rising from the exquisite portico called 'Het +Paradijs,' form a very beautiful group; but, with this exception, +there is nothing remarkable about the churches of Bruges. One of +them, however, has a peculiar interest--the Chapelle du Saint-Sang, +which stands in the Place du Bourg in the corner next to the Hotel +de Ville. It is built in two stories. The lower, a dark, solemn +chapel, like a crypt, was dedicated to St. Basil at an early period, +and is one of the oldest buildings in Bruges. The greater part +of the upper story does not date further back than the fifteenth +century. But it is not the fabric itself, venerable though that is, +but what it contains, that makes this place the Holy of Holies in +the religious life of Bruges; for here, in a costly shrine of gold +and silver adorned with precious stones, they guard the wonderful +relic which was brought from Palestine in the time of the Crusaders +by Thierry d'Alsace, Count of Flanders, and which is still worshipped +by thousands of devout believers every year. + +Thierry d'Alsace, the old chroniclers tell us, visited the Holy +Land four times, and was the leader of the Flemish warriors who, +roused by the eloquence of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, joined the +second Crusade in the summer of 1147. He had married Sybilla, sister +of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem; and when the time came for his return +to Europe, his brother-in-law and the Patriarch of Jerusalem resolved +to reward his services by giving him a part of the most valuable relic +which the Church in Palestine possessed, which was a small quantity +of a red liquid, said to be blood and water, which, according to +immemorial tradition, Joseph of Arimathaea had preserved after he +had washed the dead body of Jesus. + +The earlier history of this relic is unknown, and is as obscure +as that of the other 'Relics of the Holy Blood' which are to be +found in various places. But there can be no doubt whatever that +in the twelfth century the Christians at Jerusalem believed that +it had been in existence since the day of the Crucifixion. It was, +therefore, presented to Thierry with great solemnity in the Church +of the Holy Sepulchre during the Christmas festivals of 1148. The +Patriarch, having displayed the vessel which contained it to the +people, divided the contents into two portions, one of which he +poured into a small vial, the mouth of which was carefully sealed +up and secured with gold wire. This vessel was next enclosed in +a crystal tube, shut at the ends with golden stoppers, to which +ax chain of silver was attached. Then the Patriarch gave the tube +to Baldwin, from whose hands Thierry, kneeling on the steps of +the altar, received it with profound emotion.[*] + +[Footnote *: Canon van Haecke, _Le Precieux Sang a Bruges_ (fourth +edition), pp. 95, 96.] + +The Count, however, did not think his hands, which had shed so +much human blood, worthy to convey the relic home; and he entrusted +it to Leonius, chaplain of the Flemish Army, who hung it round +his neck, and so carried it to Bruges, where he arrived in May, +1150, along with Thierry, who, mounted on a white horse led by two +barefooted monks, and holding the relic in his hand, was conducted +in state to the Bourg, where he deposited the precious object in +the Chapel of St. Basil, which is commonly known as the Chapel +of the Holy Blood. + +After some time the relic was found to be dry, but, strange to say, +it became liquid, we are told upon the authority of Pope Clement +V., every Friday, 'usually at six o'clock.' This weekly miracle +continued till about the year 1325. Since then it has never taken +place except once, in 1388, when the vial containing the relic +was being transferred to a new crystal tube; and on this occasion +William, Bishop of Ancona, was astonished to see the relic turning +redder than usual, and some drops, as of newly-shed blood, flowing +within the vial, which he was holding in his hand. Many notable +persons who were present, one of them the Bishop of Lincoln, testified +to this event! + +Other miracles wrought through the agency of this relic are recorded. +A child which had been born dead was taken to the shrine, and came +to life after three days. A young girl who had suffered for twenty +months from an issue of blood, and for whom the doctors could do +nothing, was cured by the application of a piece of cloth which had +been used to cover the relic. Another girl who had been paralyzed +for a long time, being carried into the Chapel of St. Basil, was +restored to complete strength the moment she kissed the crystal tube. +In December, 1689, a fire broke out in the Bourg, and threatened to +destroy the Hotel de Ville; but a priest brought forth the tube +containing the relic, and held it up before the flames, which were +instantly extinguished. These and many other similar miracles, +confirmed by the oath of witnesses and received by the Church at +the present day as authentic, make the relic an object of profound +devotion to the people of Bruges and the peasants of the surrounding +country, who go in crowds to bow before it twice every Friday, +when it is exhibited for public worship. + +It was nearly lost on several occasions in the days of almost constant +war, and during the French Revolution it was concealed for some +years in the house of a private citizen. The Chapel of St. Basil +suffered from the disturbed condition of the country, and when +Napoleon came to Bruges in 1810 it was such a complete wreck that +the magistrates were on the point of sweeping it away altogether. +But Napoleon saved it, declaring that when he looked on the ruins +he fancied himself once more amongst the antiquities of Egypt, +and that to destroy them would be a crime. Four years after the +Battle of Waterloo the relic was brought out from its hiding-place, +and in 1856 the chapel was restored from the designs of two English +architects, William Brangwyn and Thomas Harper King.[*] + +[Footnote *: Gilliat-Smith, _The Story of Bruges_, p. 103.] + +On the first Monday after the 2nd of May every year the town of +Bruges is full of strangers, who have come to witness the celebrated +'Procession of the Holy Blood,' which there is good reason to believe +has taken place annually (except during the French Revolution) for +the last 755 years. + +Very early in the day a Mass is celebrated in the Upper Chapel +of the Holy Blood, which is crowded to the doors. In the crypt, +or lower chapel, where many people are kneeling before the sacred +images, the gloom, the silence, the bent figures dimly seen in the +faint yellow light of a few tapers, make up a weird scene all the +morning till about nine o'clock, when the relic, in its 'chasse,' +or tabernacle, is carried to the Cathedral of St. Sauveur, and +placed on the high altar, while a pontifical Mass is celebrated +by one of the Bishops. When that is done, the procession starts +on its march along the chief thoroughfares of the town. The houses +are decorated with flags, and candles burn in almost every window. +Through the narrow streets, between crowds of people standing on +the pavements or looking down from the windows, while the church +bells ring and wreaths of incense fill the air, bands of music, +squadrons of cavalry, crucifixes, shrines, images, the banners +of the parishes and the guilds, heralds in their varied dresses, +bareheaded pilgrims from England, France, and other countries, +pages, maidens in white, bearing palms, or crowns of thorn, or +garlands, priests with relics, acolytes and chanting choristers, +pass slowly along. The buffoonery of the Middle Ages, when giants, +ballet-dancers, and mythological characters figured in the scene, +has been abandoned; but Abraham and Isaac, King David and King +Solomon, Joseph and the Virgin Mary, the Magi, and many saints +and martyrs, walk in the long procession, which is closed by the +Bishops and clergy accompanying the gorgeous shrine containing +the small tube of something red like blood, before which all the +people sink to the ground, and remain kneeling till it has passed. + +The proceedings of the day end with a benediction at an altar erected +in front of the Hotel de Ville. The Bourg is filled from side to side +with those who have taken part in the procession, and by thousands +of spectators who have followed them from all parts of the town to +witness the closing scene. The crowd gathers under the trees and +along the sides of the square, the centre of which, occupied by +the processionists, is a mass of colour, above which the standards +and images which have been carried through the streets rise against +the dark background of the Hotel de Ville and the Chapel of the +Holy Blood. The relic is taken out of the chasse, and a priest, +standing on the steps of the altar high above the crowd, holds it +up to be worshipped. Everyone bows low, and then, in dead silence, +the mysterious object is carried into the chapel, and with this +the chief religious ceremony of the year at Bruges is brought to +a close. + +There are sights in Bruges that night, within a stone's-throw of +the Chapel of the Holy Blood, which are worth seeing, they contrast +so strangely with all this fervour of religion. + +The curtain has fallen upon the drama of the day. The flags are +furled and put aside. The vestments are in the sacristy. Shrines, +canopies, censers, all the objects carried in the procession, have +disappeared into the churches. The church doors are locked, and the +images are left to stand all night without so much as one solitary +worshipper kneeling before them. The Bourg is empty and dark, steeped +in black shadows at the door of the chapel where the relic has +been laid to rest. It is all quiet there, but a stroll through +the Rue de l'Ane Aveugle and across the canal by the bridge which +leads to the purlieus of the fish-markets brings one upon another +scene. Every second house, if not every house, is a cafe, 'herberg,' +or 'estaminet,' with a bar and sanded floor and some rough chairs and +tables; and on the night of the Procession of the Holy Blood they are +crowded to the doors. Peasants from the country are there in great +force. For some days before and after the sacred festival the +villagers are in the habit of coming into Bruges--whole families of +them, father and mother, sons and daughters, all in their best finery. +They walk through the streets, following the route by which the +Holy Blood is carried, telling their beads and saying their prayers, +crossing themselves, and kneeling at any image of Christ, or Madonna, +or saint, which they may notice at the street corners. It is curious +to watch their sunburnt faces and uncouth ways as they slouch along, +their hands busy with their beads, and their lips never ceasing +for a moment to mutter prayer after prayer. They follow in the +wake of the Procession of the Holy Blood, or wait to fall upon +their knees when it passes and receive the blessing of the Bishop, +who walks with fingers raised, scattering benedictions from side +to side. In the evening, before starting for home, they go to the +cafes. + +As evening passes into night the sounds of music and dancing are +heard. At the doors people sit drinking round tables placed on the +pavement or in the rank, poisonous gutter. The hot air is heavy +with the smell of decayed fish. Inside the cafes men and women, +old and young, are dancing in the fetid atmosphere to jingling +pianos or accordions. The heat, the close, sour fumes of musty +clothing, tobacco, beer, gin, fried fish, and unwashed humanity, +are overpowering. There are disgusting sights in all directions. +Fat women, with red, perspiring faces and dirty fingers, still +clutching their rosaries; tawdry girls, field-workers, with flushed +faces, dancing with country lads, most of whom are more than half +tipsy; ribald jokes and laughter and leering eyes; reeling, drunken +men; maudlin affection in one corner, and jealous disputing in +another; crying babies; beer and gin spilt on the tables; and all +sorts of indecency and hideous details which Swift might have gloated +over or Hogarth painted. + +This is how the day of the Holy Blood procession is finished by +many of the countryfolk. The brutal cabaret comes after the prayers +and adoration of the morning! It is a world of contrasts. But soon +the lights are out, the shutters are put up, the last customer goes +staggering homewards, and the Belfry speaks again, as it spoke +when the sweet singer lay dreaming at the Fleur-de-Ble: + + 'In the ancient town of Bruges, + In the quaint old Flemish city, + As the evening shades descended, + Low and loud and sweetly blended, + Low at times and loud at times, + And changing like a poet's rhymes, + Rang the beautiful wild chimes + From the Belfry in the market + Of the ancient town of Bruges. + Then, with deep sonorous clangour, + Calmly answering their sweet anger, + When the wrangling bells had ended, + Slowly struck the clock eleven, + And, from out the silent heaven, + Silence on the town descended. + Silence, silence everywhere, + On the earth and in the air, + Save that footsteps here and there + Of some burgher home returning, + By the street lamps faintly burning, + For a moment woke the echoes + Of the ancient town of Bruges.' + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Quai des Marbriers.] + + + + +THE BRUGES MATINS--BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BRUGES MATINS--BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS + +The visitor to Bruges is reminded, wherever he goes, of the stirring +events which fill the chronicles of the town for several centuries. +Opposite the Belfry, in the middle of the Market-Place, is the +monument to Peter De Coninck and John Breidel, on which garlands +of flowers are laid every summer, in memory of what they did when +the burghers rose against the French in May, 1302; and amongst +the modern frescoes which cover the walls of the Grande Salle des +Echevins in the Hotel de Ville, with its roof of fourteenth-century +woodwork, is one which represents the return from the Battle of +the Golden Spurs, that famous fight in which the hardy peasantry +of Flanders overthrew the knights of France whom Philip the Fair +had sent to avenge the blood of the Frenchmen who had died on the +terrible morning of the 'Bruges Matins.' + +The fourteenth century had opened. The town had now reached the +limits which have contained it ever since--an irregular oval with a +circumference of between four and five miles, surrounded by double +ditches, and a strong wall pierced by nine fortified gateways; +and as the town had grown, the privileges and liberties of the +townsmen had grown likewise. Sturdy, independent, and resolved +to keep the management of their own affairs in their own hands, +the burghers of Bruges, like those of the other Flemish towns, had +succeeded in establishing a system of self-government so complete +that it roused the opposition of Guy de Dampierre, Count of Flanders, +whose efforts to diminish the power of these communities at length +brought about a crisis which gave Philip the Fair of France an +excuse for interfering. The Count, having to contend both against +his own subjects and against the ambitions of the King of France, +fell from power, and in the end Flanders was annexed to France. + +Soon after this rich province had been added to his domains, Philip +came with his wife, Joanna of Navarre, on a visit to Bruges. Already +there were two factions in the town--the Leliarts, or French party, +consisting chiefly of the upper classes, and the Clauwerts, or +Flemish party, to which the mass of the people belonged. By the +former Philip was received in royal fashion, and so magnificent +were the dresses and jewels worn by the wives and daughters of the +nobles and rich burgesses, who sat in the windows and balconies +as the royal procession passed along, that the Queen was moved +to jealousy. 'I thought,' she said, 'that I alone was Queen; but +here in this place I have six hundred rivals.' But in the streets +below there were sullen looks and murmurs of discontent, which +grew louder and louder every day, when, after the departure of the +Court, the magistrates, who belonged to the French party, proposed +that the merchant guilds should find money to defray some of the +expenses which had been incurred on this occasion. + +At this time Peter De Coninck was Dean of the Guild of Weavers, +a man of substance, popular and eloquent. There was a tumultuous +gathering in the Market-Place, when, standing in front of the Belfry, +with the leaders of five-and-twenty guilds around him, he declaimed on +liberty, and attacked the magistrates, calling on his fellow-townsmen +to resist the taxes. The city officers, on the order of the magistrates, +arrested De Coninck and his chief supporters, and hurried them to the +prison in the Bourg. But in a few hours the mob forced an entrance +and released them. The signal for revolt had been given, and for +some months Bruges, like the rest of Flanders, was in disorder. De +Coninck, who had been joined by John Breidel, Dean of the Guild of +Butchers, was busy rousing the people in all parts of the country. +He visited Ghent, amongst other places, and tried to persuade the +magistrates that if Ghent and Bruges united their forces the whole +Flemish people would rise, crush the Leliarts, and expel the French. +But the men of Ghent would not listen to him, and he returned to +Bruges. Here, too, he met with a rebuff, for the magistrates, having +heard that Jacques de Chatillon, whom Philip had made Governor of +Flanders, was marching on the town, would not allow him to remain +amongst them. He went to Damme, and with him went, not only Breidel, +but 5,000 burghers of the national party, stout Clauwerts, who had +devoted themselves to regaining the liberty of their country. + +[Illustration: A FLEMISH YOUNG WOMAN] + +When Chatillon rode up to the walls of Bruges and demanded entrance +the magistrates agreed to open the gates, on condition that he +brought with him only 300 men-at-arms. But he broke his word, and +the town was entered by 2,000 knights, whose haughty looks and +threatening language convinced the people that treachery was intended. +It was whispered in the Market-Place that the waggons which rumbled +over the drawbridges carried ropes with which the Clauwerts who +had remained in the town were to be hanged; that there was to be +a general massacre, in which not even the women and children would +be spared; and that the Frenchmen never unbuckled their swords +or took off their armour, but were ready to begin the slaughter +at any moment. It was a day of terror in Bruges, and when evening +came some of the burghers slipped out, made their way to Damme, +and told De Coninck what was passing in the town. + +That night Chatillon gave a feast to his chief officers, and amongst +his guests was Pierre Flotte, Chancellor of France, perhaps the +ablest of those jurists by whose evil councils Philip the Fair +was encouraged in the ideas of autocracy which led him to make +the setting up of a despotism the policy of his whole life. With +Flotte--'that Belial,' as Pope Boniface VIII. once called him--and +the rest, Chatillon sat revelling till a late hour. The night wore +on; De Chatillon's party broke up, and went to rest; the weary +sentinels were half asleep at their posts; and soon all Bruges +was buried in silence. Here and there lights twinkled in some of +the guild-houses, where a few of the burghers sat anxiously waiting +for what the morrow might bring forth, while others went to the +ramparts on the north, and strained their eyes to see if help was +coming from Damme. + +At early dawn--it was Friday, May 18, 1302--the watchers on the +ramparts saw a host of armed men rapidly approaching the town. They +were divided into two parties, one of which, led by De Coninck, +made for the Porte Ste. Croix, while the other, under Breidel, +marched to the Porte de Damme, a gateway which no longer exists, +but which was then one of the most important entrances, being that +by which travellers came from Damme and Sluis. Messengers from +the ramparts ran swiftly through the streets, in which daylight +was now beginning to appear, and spread the news from house to +house. Silently the burghers took their swords and pikes, left +their homes, and gathered in the Market-Place and near the houses +in which the French were sleeping. The French slept on till, all +of a sudden, they were wakened by the tramp of feet, the clash +of arms, and shouts of 'Flanders for the Lion!' Breidel had led +his men into the town, and they were rushing through the streets +to where Chatillon had taken up his quarters, while De Coninck, +having passed through the Porte Ste. Croix, was marching to the +Bourg. The Frenchmen, bewildered, surprised, and only half awake, +ran out into the streets. The Flemings were shouting 'Schilt ende +Vriendt! Schilt ende Vriendt!'[*] and every man who could not pronounce +these words was known to be a Frenchman, and slain upon the spot. +Some fled to the gates; but at every gate they found a band of +guards, who called out 'Schilt ende Vriendt!' and put them to the +sword. + +[Footnote *: 'Shield and Friend!'] + +All that summer's morning, and on throughout the day, the massacre +continued. Old men, women, and children hurled stones from the +roofs and windows down upon the enemy. Breidel, a man of great +strength, killed many with his own hand, and those whom he wounded +were beaten to death where they fell by the apprentices with their +iron clubs. In the Market-Place, close to where the monument to De +Coninck and Breidel stands, a party of soldiers, under a gallant +French knight, Gauthier de Sapignies, made a stand; but they were +overpowered and slaughtered to the last man. Chatillon tried to +rally his forces, but the surprise had been too complete, and, +disguising himself in the cassock of a priest, he hid, in company +with Chancellor Flotte, till it was dark, when they managed to +escape from the town. By this time the carnage had ceased; the +walls of the houses and the gutters ran with blood; and the burghers +of Bruges had done their work so thoroughly that 2,000 Frenchmen +lay dead upon the streets. + +But the final reckoning with France was yet to come. Then Chatillon +reached Paris and told his master the direful story of the Bruges +Matins, Philip swore revenge; and a few weeks later an army 40,000 +strong invaded Flanders, under the Comte d'Artois, with whom rode +also Chatillon, Flotte, and many nobles of France. The Flemings went +to meet them--not only the burghers of Bruges, led by De Coninck +and Breidel, marching under the banners of their guilds, but men +from every part of Flanders--and on July 11, near Courtrai, the +Battle of the Golden Spurs was fought. + +[Illustration: A FLEMISH BURGHER] + +The ground was marshy, with a stream and pools of water between +the two armies; and just as the Scots at Bannockburn, twelve years +afterwards, prepared pitfalls for the heavy cavalry of England, so +the Flemings laid a trap for the French knights by cutting down +brushwood and covering the water. The horsemen, clad in cumbrous +armour, charged, the brushwood gave way, and most of them sank +into the water. The Comte d'Artois got clear, but was beaten to +the ground and killed. The Chancellor Flotte, who had boasted that +he would bring the people of Bruges to their knees, was trampled to +death. Chatillon died too; and when, at last, a long day's fighting +came to an end, the Flemings had gained a complete victory. By this +battle, which took its name from the thousands of golden spurs +which were torn from the French knights who fell, the victors +secured--for a time, at least--the liberty of their country, and +the memory of it was for many a day to Flanders what the memory +of Bannockburn was to Scotland, or of Morgarten to Switzerland. + + + + +DAMME--THE SEA-FIGHT AT SLUIS--SPLENDOUR OF BRUGES IN THE MIDDLE +AGES--THE FALL AND LOSS OF TRADE + + + + +CHAPTER V + +DAMME--THE SEA-FIGHT AT SLUIS--SPLENDOUR OF BRUGES IN THE MIDDLE +AGES--THE FALL AND LOSS OF TRADE + +Damme, where the patriots mustered on the eve of the Bruges Matins, +is within a short hour's stroll from the east end of the town. +The Roya, which disappears from view, as we have already seen, +opposite the Quai du Rosaire, emerges from its hidden course at +the west end of the Quai du Miroir, where the statue of Jan van +Eyck stands near the door of the building now used as a public +library. This building was once the Customs House of Bruges, +conveniently situated in the neighbourhood of the Market-Place, and +on the side of the Roya, which thence stretches eastwards between +the Quai du Miroir and the Quai Spinola for a few hundred yards, +and then turns sharply to the north, and continues between the +Quai Long and the Quai de la Potterie, which are built in rambling +fashion on either side of the water. Some of the houses are old, +others of no earlier date, apparently, than the seventeenth or +eighteenth centuries; some large and well preserved, and some mere +cottages, half ruinous, with low gables and faded yellow fronts, +huddled together on the rough causeway, alongside of which are +moored canal-boats with brown hulls and deck-houses gay with white +and green paint. At the end of the Quai de la Potterie is the modern +Bassin de Commerce, in which the Roya loses itself, the harbour for +the barges and small steamers which come by the canal connecting +Ostend with Bruges and Ghent; and near this was, in ancient days, +the Porte de Damme, through which Breidel and his followers burst +on that fateful morning in May 600 years ago. + +To the right of the Bassin a broad canal, constructed by Napoleon +in 1810, extends in a straight line eastwards, contained within +dykes which raise it above a wide expanse of level meadow-lands +intersected by ditches, and dotted here and there by the white-walled +cottages with red roofs and green outside shutters which are so +typical of Flemish scenery. About two miles out of Bruges one comes +in sight of a windmill perched on a slope at the side of the canal, +a square church-tower, a few houses, and some grassy mounds, which +were once strong fortifications. Even the historical imagination, +which everyone who walks round Bruges must carry with him, is hardly +equal to realizing that this was once a bustling seaport, with a +harbour in which more than a hundred merchant ships, laden with +produce from all parts of the world, were sometimes lying at the +same time. In those busy times Damme, they say, contained 50,000 +inhabitants; now there are only about 1,100. + +Beyond Damme the canal winds on through the same flat landscape, +low-lying, water-logged, with small farmhouses and scanty trees, and +in the distance, on the few patches of higher ground, the churches +of Oostkerke and Westcapelle. At last, soon after passing the Dutch +frontier, the canal ends in a little dock with gray, lichen-covered +sides; and this is Sluis, a dull place, with a few narrow streets, a +market-place, two churches, and a belfry of the fourteenth century. +It is quite inland now, miles from the salt water; and from the +high ramparts which still surround it the view extends to the north +across broad green fields, covering what was once the bed of the +sea, in the days when the tide ebbed and flowed in the channel of +the Zwijn, over which ships passed sailing on their way to Bruges. +But any English traveller who, having gone a little way out of the +beaten track of summer tourists, may chance to mount the ramparts, +and look down upon the fields which stretch away to the shores of +the North Sea and the estuary of the Scheldt, and inland beyond +Damme to the Belfry and the spires of Bruges, is gazing on the +scene of a great event in the naval history of England. + +Here, on what is now dry land, on the morning of June 24, 1340, +800 ships of war, full of armed men--35,000 of them--were drawn up +in line of battle; and further out to sea, beyond the entrance of +the Zwijn, the newly-risen sun was shining on the sails of another +fleet which was manoeuvring in the offing. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Qua du Miroir] + +'In the cities of Flanders,' says Dr. Gardiner, 'had arisen +manufacturing populations which supplied the countries round with +the products of the loom. To the Ghent and Bruges of the Middle +Ages England stood in the same relation as that which the Australian +colonies hold to the Leeds and Bradford of our own day. The sheep +which grazed over the wide, unenclosed pasture-lands of our island +formed a great part of the wealth of England, and that wealth depended +entirely on the flourishing trade with the Flemish towns in which +English wool was converted into cloth.' When, therefore, Edward +III. claimed the throne of France, and the Hundred Years' War began, +it was of vital importance to the trade of Flanders and England +that the merchants of the two countries should maintain friendly +relations with each other. But Philip of Valois had persuaded the +Count of Flanders, Louis de Nevers, to order the arrest of all +the English in Flanders, and Edward had retaliated by arresting +all the Flemings who were in England, and forbidding the export of +English wool to Flanders. The result was that the weavers of Bruges +and the other manufacturing towns of Flanders found themselves on +the road to ruin; and, having no interest in the question at issue +between the Kings of France and England, apart from its effect +on their commercial prosperity, the burghers of Bruges, Ghent, +and Ypres, under the leadership of the famous Jacob van Artevelde +(anticipating, as one of the modern historians of Bruges has noticed, +what the Great Powers did for Belgium in 1830[*]), succeeded in +securing, with the assent of Philip, the neutrality of Flanders. +The French King, however, did not keep faith with the Flemings, +but proceeded to acts of aggression against them, and a league +against France was formed between England and Flanders. + +[Footnote *: Robinson, _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, p. 107.] + +In June, 1340, Edward, who was then in England, hearing that an +immense number of French ships of war were at anchor in the Zwijn, +set sail to give them battle with a squadron of 300 vessels. The +English fleet anchored off the coast between Blankenberghe and +Heyst on the evening of June 23, and from the top of the dunes the +English scouts saw in the distance the masts of the French ships +in the Zwijn. + +As soon as there was light next morning, the English weighed anchor +and sailed along the coast to the east; past lonely yellow sands, +which have swarmed during recent years with workmen toiling at the +construction of the immense harbour of See-Brugge, which is to +be the future port of Bruges; past what was then the small fishing +hamlet of Heyst; past a range of barren dunes, amongst which to-day +Duinbergen, the latest of the Flemish watering-places, with its +spacious hotel and trim villas, is being laid out; past a waste of +storm-swept sand and rushes, on which are now the digue of Knocke, +a cluster of hotels and crowded lodging-houses, and a golf-course; +and so onwards till they opened the mouth of the Zwijn, and saw +the French ships crowding the entrance, 'their masts appearing to +be like a great wood,' and beyond them the walls of Sluis rising +from the wet sands left by the receding tide. + +It was low-water, and while waiting for the turn of the tide the +English fleet stood out to sea for some time, so that Nicholas +Behuchet, the French Admiral, began to flatter himself that King +Edward, finding himself so completely outnumbered, would not dare +to risk fighting against such odds. The odds, indeed, were nearly +three to one against the English seamen; but as soon as the tide +began to flow they steered straight into the channel, and, Edward +leading the van, came to close quarters, ship to ship. The famous +archers of England, who six years later were to do such execution +at Crecy, lined the bulwarks, and poured in a tempest of arrows so +thick that men fell from the tops of the French ships like leaves +before a storm. The first of the four lines in which Behuchet had +drawn up his fleet was speedily broken, and the English, brandishing +their swords and pikes, boarded the French ships, drove their crews +overboard, and hoisted the flag of England. King Edward was wounded, +and the issue may have been doubtful, when suddenly more ships, +coming from the North of England, appeared in sight, and hordes +of Flemings from all parts of Flanders, from the coast, and even +from inland towns so far away as Ypres,[*] came swarming in boats +to join in the attack. This decided the fate of the great battle, +which continued till sunset. When it ended, the French fleet had +ceased to exist, with the exception of a few ships which escaped +when it was dark. The Flemings captured Behuchet, and hung him +then and there. Nearly 30,000 of his men perished, many of whom +were drowned while attempting to swim ashore, or were clubbed to +death by the Flemings who lined the beach, waiting to take vengeance +on the invaders for having burned their homesteads and carried +off their flocks. The English lost two ships and 4,000 men; but +the victory was so complete that no courtier was bold enough to +carry the news to King Philip, who did not know what had befallen +his great fleet till the Court jester went to him, and said, 'Oh! +the English cowards! the English cowards! They had not the courage +to jump into the sea as our noble Frenchmen did at Sluis.' + +[Footnote *: Vereecke, _Histoire Militaire de la Ville d'Ypres_, +p. 36.] + +It is strange to think that Flemish peasants work, and cattle feed, +and holiday visitors from Knocke, or Sluis, or Kadzand ramble about +dry-shod where the waves were rolling in on that midsummer's morning, +and that far beneath the grass the timbers of so many stout ships +and the bones of so many valiant seamen have long since mouldered +away. And it is also strange to think, when wandering along the +canals of Bruges, where now the swans glide silently about in the +almost stagnant water which laps the basements of the old houses, +how in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ships of every nation +carried in great bales of merchandise, and that rich traders stored +them in warehouses and strong vaults, which are now mere coal-cellars, +or the dark and empty haunts of the rats which swarm in the canals. + +'There is,' says Mr. Robinson, 'in the National Library at Paris a +list of the kingdoms and cities which sent their produce to Bruges +at that time. England sent wool, lead, tin, coal, and cheese; Ireland +and Scotland, chiefly hides and wool; Denmark, pigs; Russia, Hungary, +and Bohemia, large quantities of wax; Poland, gold and silver; +Germany, wine; Liege, copper kettles; and Bulgaria, furs.' After +naming many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, that sent goods, +the manuscript adds: 'And all the aforesaid realms and regions +send their merchants with wares to Flanders, besides those who +come from France, Poitou, and Gascony, and from the three islands +of which we know not the names of their kingdoms.' The trade of +Bruges was enormous. People flocked there from all quarters. + + 'Lombard and Venetian merchants with deep-laden argosies; + Ministers from twenty nations; more than royal pomp and ease.' + +We read of 150 ships entering in one day, and of German merchants +buying 2,600 pieces of cloth, made by Flemish weavers, in a morning's +marketing. A citizen of Bruges was always at the head of the Hanseatic +League, and maintained the rights of that vast commercial society +under the title of 'Comte de la Hanse.' Merchant princes, members +of the Hanse, lived here in palaces. Money-changers grew rich. +Edward III. borrowed from the Bardi at Bruges on the security of +the Crown jewels of England. Contracts of insurance against maritime +risks were entered into from an early period, and the merchant +shipping code which regulated traffic by sea was known as the 'Roeles +de Damme.'[*] There were twenty consulates at one time in Bruges, +and the population of the town is said, though it is difficult to +believe that this is not an exaggeration, to have been more than +200,000 before the middle of the fourteenth century. + +[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, _Bruges Ancienne et Moderne_, +p. 14.] + +Six years after the Battle of Sluis, Louis of Nevers was killed at +Crecy, and his son, Louis of Maele, reigned in his stead as Count +of Flanders. He was a Leliart to the core, and his reign of nearly +forty years, one long struggle against the liberties of his people, +witnessed the capture of Bruges by Philip van Artevelde, the invasion +of Flanders by the French, the defeat of the Nationalists, and the +death of Van Artevelde on the field of Roosebeke. Nevertheless, +during this period and after it Bruges grew in beauty and in wealth. +The Hotel de Ville, without the grandeur of the Hotel de Ville at +Brussels, but still a gem of mediaeval architecture, was built on +the site of the old 'Ghiselhuis' of Baldwin Bras-de-Fer. Other noble +buildings, rich in design and beautiful in all their outlines, and +great mansions, with marble halls and ceilings of exquisitely carved +woodwork, rose on every side; towers and pinnacles, shapely windows +and graceful arches, overhung the waterways; luxury increased; in +the homes of the nobles and wealthy merchants were stores of precious +stones, tapestries, silk, fine linen, cloth of gold; the churches +and many buildings gleamed with gilded stone and tinted glass and +brilliant frescoes. Art flourished as the town grew richer. The +elder and the younger Van Eyck, Gerard David, and Memlinc, with +many others before and after them, were attracted by its splendour, +as modern painters have been attracted by its decay; and though the +'Adoration of the Immaculate Lamb' hangs in the choir of St. Bavon +at Ghent, the genius which coloured that matchless altar-piece +found its inspiration within the walls of Bruges. + +The history of Bruges for many long years, especially under the +rule of the House of Burgundy, was, in the midst of war, turmoil, +and rebellion, the history of continuous progress. But all this +prosperity depended on the sea. So long as the Zwijn remained open, +neither war nor faction, not even the last great rising against +the Archduke Maximilian, which drove away the foreign merchants, +most of whom went to Antwerp, and so impoverished the town that +no less than 5,000 houses were standing empty in the year 1405,[*] +could have entirely ruined Bruges. These disasters might have been +retrieved if the channel of communication with Damme and Sluis had +not been lost; but for a long time the condition of this important +waterway had been the cause of grave anxiety to the people of Bruges. +The heavy volume of water which poured with every ebbing tide down +the Scheldt between Flushing and Breskens swept past the island of +Walcheren, and spread out into the North Sea and down the English +Channel, leaving the mud it carried with it on the sands round the +mouth of the Zwijn, which itself did not discharge a current strong +enough to prevent the slow but sure formation of a bank across its +entrance. Charters, moreover, had been granted to various persons, +under which they drained the adjoining lands, and gradually reclaimed +large portions from the sea. The channel, at no time very deep, +became shallower, narrower, and more difficult of access, until at +last, during the second half of the fifteenth century, the passage +between Sluis and Damme was navigable only by small ships. Soon +the harbour at Damme was nearly choked up with sand. Many schemes +were tried in the hope of preserving the Zwijn, but the sea-trade +of Bruges dwindled away to a mere nothing, and finally disappeared +before the middle of the sixteenth century. + +[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, p. 25.] + +And so Bruges fell from greatness. There are still some traces of +the ancient bed of the Zwijn amongst the fields near Coolkerke, +a village a short distance to the north of Bruges--a broad ditch +with broken banks, and large pools of slimy water lying desolate +and forlorn in a wilderness of tangled bushes. These are now the +only remains of the highway by which the 'deep-laden argosies' +used to enter in the days of old. + + + + +'BRUGES LA MORTE' + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +'BRUGES LA MORTE' + +They call it 'Bruges la Morte,' and at every turn there is something +to remind us of the deadly blight which fell upon the city when +its trade was lost. The faded colours, the timeworn brickwork, the +indescribable look of decay which, even on the brightest morning, +throws a shade of melancholy over the whole place, lead one to +think of some aged dame, who has 'come down in the world,' wearing +out the finery of better days. It is all very sad and pathetic, +but strangely beautiful, and the painter never lived who could +put on canvas the mellow tints with which Time has clothed these +old walls, and thus veiled with tender hand the havoc it has made. +To stand on the bridge which crosses the canal at the corner of +the Quai des Marbriers and the Quai Vert, where the pinnacles of +the Palais du Franc and the roof of the Hotel de Ville, with the +Belfry just showing above them, and dull red walls rising from +the water, make up a unique picture of still-life, is to read a +sermon in stones, an impressive lesson in history. + +The loss of trade brought Bruges face to face with the 'question +of the unemployed' in a very aggravated form. How to provide for +the poor became a most serious problem, and so many of the people +were reduced to living on charity that almshouses sprang up all +over the town. God's Houses ('Godshuisen') they called them, and +call them still. They are to be found in all directions--quaint +little places, planted down here and there, each with a small chapel +of its own, with moss-grown roofs and dingy walls, and doors that +open on to the uneven cobbles. Every stone of them spells pauperism. +The Church does much towards maintaining these shelters for the +poor--perhaps too much, if it is true that there are 10,000 paupers +in Bruges out of a population of about 55,000. There is a great deal +of begging in the streets, and a sad lack of sturdy self-respect +amongst the lower class, which many think is caused by the system +of doles, for which the Church is chiefly responsible. Bruges might +not have been so picturesque to-day if her commerce had survived; +but the beauty of a town is dearly purchased at the cost of such +degradation and loss of personal independence. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. View of the Palais du Franc.] + +It was not only the working class which suffered. Many rich families +sank into poverty, and their homes, some of which were more like +palaces than private houses, had to be dismantled. The fate of +one of these lordly mansions is connected with an episode which +carries us back into the social life of Bruges in the middle of +the seventeenth century. On the right side of the Rue Haute, as +one goes from the Place du Bourg, there is a high block containing +two large houses, Nos. 6 and 8, of that street. It is now a big, +plain building without a trace of architectural distinction; but +in the seventeenth century it was a single mansion, built about +the year 1320, and was one of the many houses with towers which +gave the Bruges of that time almost the appearance of an Oriental +city. It was called the House of the Seven Towers, from the seven +pinnacles which surmounted it; and at the back there was a large +garden, which extended to the canal and Quai des Marbriers. + +In April, 1656, the 'tall man above two yards high, with dark brown +hair, scarcely to be distinguished from black,' for whom the Roundheads +had searched all England after the Battle of Worcester, found his +way to Bruges, with his brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and +the train of Royalists who formed their Court. For nearly three +years after Worcester, Charles II. had lived in France; but in +July, 1654, the alliance between Cromwell and Mazarin drove him to +Germany, where he remained till Don John of Austria became Governor +of the Spanish Netherlands. Thereupon the prospect of recovering +the English throne by the assistance of Spain led him to remove +his Court, which had been established for some time at Cologne, +to Flanders. He arrived at Bruges on April 22, 1656. His brother +James, Duke of York, and afterwards King of England, held a commission +in the French army, and Mazarin offered him a command in Italy. +Charles, however, requested him to leave the French army, and enter +the service of Spain. At first James refused; but by the mediation +of their sister, the Princess of Orange, he was persuaded to do +as his brother wished, and join the Court at Bruges. The Irish +Viscount Tarah received Charles, when he first arrived, in his +house in the Rue du Vieux Bourg, and there gave him, we read in +local history, 'une brillante hospitalite.' But in the beginning +of June the Court took up its quarters in the House of the Seven +Towers. + +During his sojourn in Flanders, Charles was carefully watched by +the secret service officers of the Commonwealth Government, who +sent home reports of all he did. These reports, many of which are +in the Thurloe State Papers and other collections, contain some +curious details about the exiled Court. + +There never was a more interesting 'English colony' at Bruges than +at that time. Hyde, who received the Great Seal at Bruges, was there +with Ormonde and the Earls of Bristol, Norwich, and Rochester. +Sir Edward Nicholas was Secretary of State; and we read of Colonel +Sydenham, Sir Robert Murray, and 'Mr. Cairless', who sat on the +tree with Charles Stewart after Worcester fight. Another of the +exiles at Bruges was Sir James Turner, the soldier of fortune, +who served under Gustavus Adolphus, persecuted the Covenanters +in Scotland, and is usually supposed to have been the original +of Dugald Dalgetty in Sir Walter Scott's _Legend of Montrose_. +A list of the royal household is still preserved at Bruges. It +was prepared in order that the town council might fix the daily +allowance of wine and beer which was to be given to the Court, +and contains the names of about sixty persons, with a note of the +supply granted to each family. + +A 'Letter of Intelligence' (the report of a spy), dated from Bruges +on September 29, 1656, mentions that Lilly, the astrologer of London, +had written to say that the King would be restored to the throne +next year, and that all the English at Bruges were delighted. But +in the meantime they were very hard up for ready money. Ever since +leaving England Charles and his followers had suffered from the +most direful impecuniosity. We find Hyde declaring that he has +'neither shoes nor shirt.' The King himself was constantly running +into debt for his meals, and his friends spent many a hungry day +at Bruges. If by good luck they chanced to be in funds, one meal a +day sufficed for a party of half a dozen courtiers. If it was cold +they could not afford to purchase firewood. The Earl of Norwich +writes, saying that he has to move about so as to get lodgings on +credit, and avoid people to whom he owes money. Colonel Borthwick, +who claims to have served the King most faithfully, complains that he +is in prison at Bruges on suspicion of disloyalty, has not changed +his clothes for three years, and is compelled by lack of cash to go +without a fire in winter. Sir James Hamilton, a gentleman-in-waiting, +gets drunk one day, and threatens to kill the Lord Chancellor. He +is starving, and declares it is Hyde's fault that the King gives +him no money. He will put on a clean shirt to be hanged in, and +not run away, being without so much as a penny. Then we have the +petition of a poor fencing-master. 'Heaven,' he writes piteously, +'hears the groans of the lowest creatures, and therefore I trust that +you, being a terrestrial deity, will not disdain my supplication.' +He had come from Cologne to Bruges to teach the royal household, +and wanted his wages, for he and his family were starving. + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Maison du Pelican (Almshouse).] + +Don John of Austria visited Charles at Bruges, and an allowance +from the King of Spain was promised, so that men might be levied +for the operations against Cromwell; but the payments were few +and irregular. 'The English Court,' says a letter of February, +1657, 'remains still at Bridges [Bruges], never in greater want, +nor greater expectations of money, without which all their levies +are like to be at a stand; for Englishmen cannot live on bread +alone.' + +A 'Letter of Intelligence' sent from Sluis says that Charles is 'much +loocked upon, but littell respeckted.' And this is not wonderful if +the reports sent home by the Commonwealth agents are to be trusted. +One of the spies who haunted the neighbourhood of Bruges was a Mr. +Butler, who writes in the winter of 1656-1657: 'This last week +one of the richest churches in Bruges was plundered in the night. +The people of Bruges are fully persuaded that Charles Stewart's +followers have done it. They spare no pains to find out the guilty, +and if it happen to light upon any of Charles Stewart's train, it +will mightily incense that people against them.... There is now +a company of French comedians at Bruges, who are very punctually +attended by Charles Stewart and his Court, and all the ladies there. +Their most solemn day of acting is the Lord's Day. I think I may +truly say that greater abominations were never practised among +people than at this day at Charles Stewart's Court. Fornication, +drunkenness, and adultery are esteemed no sins amongst them; so I +persuade myself God will never prosper any of their attempts.'[*] +In another letter we read that once, after a hunting expedition, +Charles and a gentleman of the bedchamber were the only two who +came back sober. Sir James Turner was mad when drunk, 'and that +was pretty often,' says Bishop Burnet. + +[Footnote *: Letter from Mr. J. Butler, Flushing, December 2, 1656, +Thurloe State Papers, V., 645.] + +But, of course, it was the business of the spies to blacken the +character of Charles; and there can be little doubt that, in spite +of his poverty and loose morals, he was well liked by the citizens +of Bruges, who, notwithstanding a great deal of outward decorum, have +at no time been very strait-laced. 'Charles,' we learn from a local +history, 'sut se rendre populaire en prenant part aux amusements de +la population et en se pliant, sans effort comme sans affectation, +aux usages du pays.' During his whole period of exile he contrived +to amuse himself. Affairs of gallantry, dancing, tennis, billiards, +and other frivolous pursuits, occupied as much of his attention +as the grave affairs of State over which Hyde and Ormonde spent +so many anxious hours. When on a visit to Brussels in the spring +of 1657, he employed, we are told, most of his time with Don John +dancing, or at 'long paume, a Spanish play with balls filled with +wire.' And, again: 'He passes his time with shooting at Bruges, +and such other obscure pastimes.' + +This 'shooting' was the favourite Flemish sport of shooting with +bow and arrows at an artificial bird fixed on a high pole, the +prize being, on great occasions, a golden bird, which was hung by a +chain of gold round the winner's neck. In the records of the Guilds +of St. George and St. Sebastian at Bruges there are notices relating +to Charles. The former was a society of cross-bowmen, the latter +of archers. On June 11, 1656, Charles and the Duke of Gloucester +were at the festival of the Society of St. George. Charles was the +first to try his skill, and managed to hit the mark. After the +Duke and many others had shot, Peter Pruyssenaere, a wine merchant +in the Rue du Vieux Bourg, brought down the bird, and Charles hung +the golden 'Bird of Honour' round his neck. On June 25 Charles +visited the Society of St. Sebastian, when Michael Noe, a gardener, +was the winner. The King and Gloucester both became members of +the St. Sebastian, which is still a flourishing society. Going +along the Rue des Carmes, the traveller passes the English convent +on the left, and on the right, at the end of the street, comes +to the Guild-house of St. Sebastian, with its slender tower and +quiet garden, one of the pleasantest spots in Bruges. There the +names of Charles and his brother are to be seen inscribed in a +small volume bound in red morocco, the 'Bird of Honour' with its +chain of gold, a silver arrow presented by the Duke of Gloucester, +and some other interesting relics. On September 15, 1843, Queen +Victoria, Prince Albert, King Leopold I., and the Queen of the +Belgians, went to the Rue des Carmes and signed their names as +members of this society, which now possesses two silver cups, presented +by the Queen of England in 1845 and 1893. The Duke of York seems +to have been successful as an archer, for in the Hotel de Ville +at Bruges there is a picture by John van Meuninxhove, in which +Charles is seen hanging the 'Bird of Honour' round his brother's +neck. + +In April, 1657, the English Government was informed that the Court +of Charles was preparing to leave Bruges. 'Yesterday' (April 7) +'some of his servants went before to Brussels to make ready lodgings +for Charles Stewart, the Duke of York, and the Duke of Gloucester. +All that have or can compass so much money go along with Charles +Stewart on Monday morning. I do admire how people live here for +want of money. Our number is not increased since my last. The most +of them are begging again for want of money; and when any straggling +persons come, we have not so much money as will take a single man +to the quarters; yet we promise ourselves great matters.' They +were hampered in all their movements by this want of hard cash, +for Charles was in debt at Bruges, and could not remove his goods +until he paid his creditors. It was sadly humiliating. 'The King,' +we read, 'will hardly live at Bruges any more, but he cannot remove +his family and goods till we get money.' The dilemma seems to have +been settled by Charles, his brothers, and most of the Court going +off to Brussels, leaving their possessions behind them. The final +move did not take place till February, 1658, and Clarendon says that +Charles never lived at Bruges after that date. He may, however, have +returned on a short visit, for Jesse, in his _Memoirs of the Court Of +England under the Stuarts_, states that the King was playing tennis +at Bruges when Sir Stephen Fox came to him with the great news, 'The +devil is dead!' This would be in September, 1658, Cromwell having +died on the third of that month. After the Restoration Charles sent +to the citizens of Bruges a letter of thanks for the way in which +they had received him. Nor did he forget, amidst the pleasures of +the Court at Whitehall, the simple pastimes of the honest burghers, +but presented to the archers of the Society of St. Sebastian the +sum of 3,600 florins, which were expended on their hall of meeting. + +More than a hundred years later, when the Stuart dynasty was a thing +of the past and George III. was seated on the throne of England, +the Rue Haute saw the arrival of some travellers who were very +different from the roystering Cavaliers and frail beauties who had +made it gay in the days of the Merry Monarch. The English Jesuits +of St. Omer, when expelled from their college, came to Bruges in +August, 1762, and took up their abode in the House of the Seven +Towers, where they found 'nothing but naked walls and empty chambers.' +A miserable place it must have been. 'In one room a rough table of +planks had been set up, and the famished travellers were rejoiced +at the sight of three roast legs of mutton set on the primitive +table. Knives, forks, and plates there were none. A Flemish servant +divided the food with his pocket-knife. A farthing candle gave +a Rembrandt-like effect to the scene. The boys slept that night +on mattresses laid on the floor of one of the big empty rooms of +the house. The first days at Bruges were cheerless enough.'[*] +The religious houses, however, came to the rescue. Flemish monks +and the nuns of the English convent helped the pilgrims, and the +Jesuits soon established themselves at Bruges, where they remained +in peace for a few years, till the Austrian Government drove them +out. The same fate overtook the inmates of many monasteries and +convents at Bruges in the reign of Joseph II., whose reforming +zeal led to that revolt of the Austrian Netherlands which was the +prelude to the invasion of Flanders by the army of the French +Revolution. + +[Footnote *: Robinson, _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, p. 291.] + +After the conquest of Belgium by the French it looked as if all +the churches in Bruges were doomed. The Chapel of St. Basil was +laid in ruins. The Church of St. Donatian, which had stood since +the days of Baldwin Bras-de-Fer, was pulled down and disappeared +entirely. Notre Dame, St. Sauveur, and other places of worship, +narrowly escaped destruction; and it was not till the middle of +the nineteenth century that the town recovered, in some measure, +from these disasters. + +Bruges has doubtless shared in the general prosperity which has +spread over the country since Belgium became an independent kingdom +after the revolution of 1830, but its progress has been slow. It +has never lost its old-world associations; and the names of the +streets and squares, and the traditions connected with numberless +houses which a stranger might pass without notice, are all so many +links with the past. There is the Rue Espagnole, for example, where +a vegetable market is held every Wednesday. This was the quarter +where the Spanish merchants lived and did their business. There +used to be a tall, dark, and, in fact, very dirty-looking old house +in this street known by the Spanish name of the 'Casa Negra.' It +was pulled down a few years ago; but lower down, at the foot of +the street, the great cellars in which the Spaniards stored their +goods remain; and on the Quai Espagnol was the Spanish Consulate, +now a large dwelling-house. A few steps from the Quai Espagnol is +the Place des Orientaux (Oosterlingen Plaats), where a minaret of +tawny brick rises above the gables of what was once the Consulate +of Smyrna, and on the north side of which, in the brave days of +old, stood the splendid Maison des Orientaux, the headquarters +of the Hanseatic League in Bruges, the finest house in Flanders, +with turrets and soaring spire, and marvellous facade, and rooms +inside all ablaze with gilding. The glory has departed; two modern +dwelling-houses have taken the place of this commercial palace; +but it must surely be a very dull imagination on which the sight +of this spot, now so tranquil and commonplace, but once the centre +of such important transactions, makes no impression. From the Place +des Orientaux it is only a few minutes' stroll to the Rue Cour +de Gand and the dark brown wooden front of the small house, now +a lace shop, which tradition says was one of Memlinc's homes in +Bruges, where we can fancy him, laboriously and with loving care, +putting the last minute touches to some immortal painting. + +Then there is the Rue Anglaise, off the Quai Spinola, where the +English Merchant Adventurers met to discuss their affairs in houses +with such names as 'Old England' or 'The Tower of London.' The +head of the colony, 'Governor of the English Nation beyond the +Seas' they called him, was a very busy man 400 years ago.[*] The +Scottish merchants were settled in the same district, close to +the Church of Ste. Walburge. They called their house 'Scotland,' +and doubtless made as good bargains as the 'auld enemy' in the +next street. There is a building called the Parijssche Halle, or +Halle de Paris, hidden away among the houses to the west of the +Market-Place, with a cafe and a theatre where Flemish plays are acted +now, which was formerly the Consulate of France; and subscription +balls and amateur theatricals are given by the English residents of +to-day in the fourteenth-century house of the Genoese merchants +in the Rue Flamande. The list of streets and houses with old-time +associations like these might be extended indefinitely, for in +Bruges the past is ever present. + +[Footnote *: In the _Flandria Illustrata_ of Sanderus, vol. i., +p. 275, there is a picture of the 'Domus Anglorum.'] + +[Illustration: BRUGES. Vegetable Market.] + +Even the flat-fronted, plain houses with which poverty or the bad +taste of the last century replaced many of the older buildings +do not spoil the picturesque appearance of the town as a whole, +because it is no larger now than it was 600 years ago, and these +modern structures are quite lost amongst their venerable neighbours. +Thus Bruges retains its mediaeval character. In the midst, however, +of all this wealth of architectural beauty and historical interest, +the atmosphere of common everyday life seems to be so very dull and +depressing that people living there are apt to be driven, by sheer +boredom, into spending their lives in a round of small excitements +and incessant, wearisome gossip, and into taking far more interest +in the paltry squabbles of their neighbours over some storm in +a teacup than in the more important topics which invigorate the +minds of men and women in healthier and broader societies. Long +before Rodenbach's romance was written this peculiarity of Bruges +was proverbial throughout Belgium. + +But it is possible that a change is at hand, and that Bruges may +once again become, not the Venice of the North--the time for that is +past--but an important town, for the spirit of commercial enterprise +which has done so much for other parts of Belgium during the last +seventy-five years is now invading even this quiet place, whose +citizens have begun to dream of recovering some portion of their +former prosperity. In 1895 the Belgian Parliament passed a law +providing for the construction, between Blankenberghe and Heyst, +of a harbour connected with Bruges by a canal of large dimensions, +and of an inner port at the town. The works at See-Brugge, as the +outer port is called, are nearly completed, and will allow vessels +drawing 26-1/2 feet of water to float at any state of the tide. +The jetty describes a large curve, and the bend is such that its +extremity is parallel to the coast, and 930 yards distant from +the low-water mark. The sheltered roadstead is about 272 acres in +extent, and communication is made with the canal by a lock 66 feet +wide and 282 yards in length. From this point the canal, which has a +depth of 26-1/2 feet and is fed by sea-water, runs in a straight +line to Bruges, and ends at the inner port, which is within a few +hundred yards of where the Roya used to meet the Zwijn. It is capable +of affording a minimum capacity of 1,000,000 tons per annum, and +the whole equipment has been fitted up necessary for dealing with +this amount of traffic. + +The first ship, an English steamer, entered the new port at Bruges +on the morning of May 29 in the present year (1905). The carillon +rung from the Belfry, guns were fired, and a ceremony in honour +of the event took place in the Hotel de Ville. It now remains to +be seen whether any part of the trade which was lost 400 years ago +can be recovered by the skill of modern engineers and the resources +of modern capital. + + + + +THE PLAIN OF WEST FLANDERS--YPRES + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE PLAIN OF WEST FLANDERS--YPRES + +To the west of Bruges the wide plain of Flanders extends to the +French frontier. Church spires and windmills are the most prominent +objects in the landscape; but though the flatness of the scenery is +monotonous, there is something pleasing to the eye in the endless +succession of well-cultivated fields, interrupted at intervals by +patches of rough bushland, canals, or slow-moving streams winding +between rows of pollards, country houses embowered in woods and +pleasure-grounds, cottages with fruitful gardens, orchards, small +villages, and compact little towns, in most of which the diligent +antiquary will find something of interest--a modest belfry, perhaps, +with a romance of its own; a parish church, whose foundations were +laid long ago in ground dedicated, in the distant past, to the +worship of Thor or Woden; or the remains, it may be, of a mediaeval +castle, from which some worthy knight, whose name is forgotten +except in local traditions, rode away to the Crusades. + +This part of West Flanders, which lies wedged in between the coast, +with its populous bathing stations, and the better-known district +immediately to the south of it, where Ghent, Tournai, Courtrai, +and other important centres draw many travellers every year, is +seldom visited by strangers, who are almost as much stared at in +some of the villages as they would be in the streets of Pekin. It +is, however, very accessible. The roads are certainly far from +good, and anything in the shape of a walking tour is out of the +question, for the strongest pedestrian would have all his pleasure +spoilt by the hard-going of the long, straight causeway. The ideal +way to see the Netherlands and study the life of the people is +to travel on the canals; but these are not so numerous here as +in other parts of the country, and, besides, it is not very easy +to arrange for a passage on the barges. But, in addition to the +main lines of the State Railway, there are the 'Chemins-de-fer +Vicinaux,' or light district railways, which run through all parts +of Belgium. The fares on these are very low, and there are so many +stoppages that the traveller can see a great many places in the +course of a single day. There are cycle tracks, too, alongside +most of the roads, the cost of keeping them in order being paid +out of the yearly tax paid by the owners of bicycles.[*] + +[Footnote *: Bicycles entering Belgium pay an _ad valorem_ duty +of 12 per cent.] + +[Illustration: THE FLEMISH PLAIN] + +This is the most purely Flemish part of Flanders. One very seldom +notices that Spanish type of face which is so common elsewhere--at +Antwerp, for instance. Here the race is almost unmixed, and the +peasants speak nothing but Flemish to each other. Many of them +do not understand a word of French, though in Belgium French is, +as everyone knows, the language of public life and of literature. +The newspapers published in Flemish are small, and do not contain +much beyond local news. The result is that the country people in +West Flanders know very little of what is going on in the world +beyond their own parishes. The standard of education is low, being +to a great extent in the hands of the clergy, who have hitherto +succeeded in defeating all proposals for making it universal and +compulsory. + +But, steeped as most of them are in ignorance and superstition, +the agricultural labourers of West Flanders are, to all appearance, +quite contented with their lot. Living is cheap, and their wants +are few. Coffee, black bread, potatoes, and salted pork, are the +chief articles of diet, and in some households even the pork is a +treat for special occasions. They seldom taste butter, using lard +instead; and the 'margarine' which is sold in the towns does not +find its way into the cottages of the outlying country districts. +Sugar has for many years been much dearer than in England, and the +price is steadily rising, but with this exception the food of the +people is cheap. Tea enters Belgium duty free, but the peasants +never use it. Many villagers smoke coarse tobacco grown in their own +gardens, and a 10-centimes cigar is the height of luxury. Tobacco +being a State monopoly in France, the high price in that country +makes smuggling common, and there is a good deal of contraband +trading carried on in a quiet way on the frontiers of West Flanders. +The average wage paid for field labour is from 1 franc 50 centimes +to 2 francs a day for married men--that is to say, from about 1s. +3d. to 1s. 8d. of English money. Bachelors generally receive 1 +franc (10d.) a day and their food. The working hours are long, +often from five in the morning till eight in the evening in summer, +and in winter from sunrise till sunset, with one break at twelve +o'clock for dinner, consisting of bread with pork and black coffee, +and another about four in the afternoon, when what remains of the +mid-day meal is consumed. + +The Flemish farmhouse is generally a substantial building, with +two large living-rooms, in which valuable old pieces of furniture +are still occasionally to be found, though the curiosity dealers +have, during the last quarter of a century, carried most of them +away, polished them up, and sold them at a high profit. Carved +chests, bearing the arms of ancient families, have been discovered +lying full of rubbish in barns or stables, and handsome cabinets, +with fine mouldings and brass fittings, have frequently been picked +up for a few francs. The heavy beams of the ceilings, black with +age, the long Flemish stoves, and the quaint window-seats deeply +sunk in the thick walls, still remain, and make the interiors of many +of these houses very picturesque; but the 'finds' of old furniture, +curious brass or pewter dishes, and even stray bits of valuable +tapestry, which used to rouse the cupidity of strangers, are now +very rare. Almost all the brass work which is so eagerly bought by +credulous tourists at Bruges in summer is bran-new stuff cleverly +manufactured for sale--and sold it is at five or six times its +real market value! There are no bargains to be picked up on the +Dyver or in the shops of Bruges. + +[Illustration: DUINHOEK. Interior of a Farmhouse.] + +The country life is simple. A good deal of hard drinking goes on +in most villages. More beer, probably, is consumed in Belgium per +head of the population than in any other European country, Germany +not excepted, and the system of swallowing 'little glasses' of fiery +spirit on the top of beer brings forth its natural fruits. The +drunken ways of the people are encouraged by the excessive number +of public-houses. Practically anyone who can pay the Government +fee and obtain a barrel of beer and a few tumblers may open a +drinking-shop. It is not uncommon in a small country village with +about 200 inhabitants to see the words 'Herberg' or 'Estaminet' over +the doors of a dozen houses, in which beer is sold at a penny (or +less) for a large glass, and where various throat-burning liquors +of the _petit verre_ species can be had at the same price; and +the result is that very often a great portion of the scanty wage +paid on Saturday evening is melted into beer or gin on Sunday and +Monday. As a rule, the Flemish labourer, being a merry, light-hearted +soul, is merely noisy and jovial in a brutal sort of way in his +cups; but let a quarrel arise, out come the knives, and before +the rural policeman saunters along there are nasty rows, ending +in wounds and sometimes in murder. When the lots are drawn for +military service, and crowds of country lads with their friends +flock into the towns, the public-houses do good business. Those +who have drawn lucky numbers, and so escaped the conscription, +get drunk out of joy; while those who find they must serve in the +army drown their sorrow, or celebrate the occasion if they are +of a martial turn, by reeling about the streets arm in arm with +their companions, shouting and singing. Whole families, old and +young alike, often join in these performances, and they must be +very drunk and very disorderly before the police think of making +even the mildest remonstrance. + +The gay character of the Flemings is best seen at the 'kermesse,' +or fair, which is held in almost every village during summer. At +Bruges, Ypres, and Furnes, and still more in such large cities +as Brussels or Antwerp, the kermesse has ceased to be typical of +the country, and is supplanted by fairs such as may be seen in +England or in almost any other country. 'Merry-go-rounds' driven +by steam, elaborate circuses, menageries, waxwork exhibitions, +movable theatres, and modern 'shows' of every kind travel about, +and settle for a few days, perhaps even for a few weeks, in various +towns. The countryfolk of the surrounding district are delighted, +and the showmen reap a goodly harvest of francs and centimes; but +these fairs are tiresome and commonplace, much less amusing and +lively than, for example, St. Giles's Fair at Oxford, though very +nearly as noisy. But the kermesse proper, which still survives in +some places, shows the Flemings amusing themselves in something +more like the old fashion than anything which can be seen in the +Market-Place of Bruges or on the boulevards of Brussels or Antwerp. +Indeed, some of the village scenes, when the young people are dancing +or shooting with bows and arrows at the mark, while the elders sit, +with their mugs of beer and long pipes, watching and gossiping, +are very like what took place in the times of the old painters who +were so fond of producing pictures of the kermesses. The dress of +the people, of course, is different, but the spirit of the scene, +with its homely festivities, is wonderfully little changed. + +About twenty miles from the French frontier is the town of Ypres, +once the capital of Flanders, and which in the time of Louis of Nevers +was one of the three 'bonnes villes,' Bruges and Ghent being the +others, which appointed deputies to defend the rights and privileges +of the whole Flemish people. + +As Bruges grew out of the rude fortress on the banks of the Roya, +so Ypres developed from a stronghold built, probably about the year +900, on a small island in the river Yperlee. It was triangular +in shape, with a tower at each corner, and was at first known by +the inhabitants of the surrounding plain as the 'Castle of the +Three Towers.' In course of time houses began to appear on the +banks of the river near the island. A rampart of earth with a ditch +defended these, and as the place grew, the outworks became more +extensive. Owing to its strategic position, near France and in a +part of Flanders which was constantly the scene of war, it was of +great importance; and probably no other Flemish town has seen its +defences so frequently altered and enlarged as Ypres has between +the primitive days when the Crusading Thierry d'Alsace planted +hedges of live thorns to strengthen the towers, and the reign of +Louis XIV., when a vast and elaborate system of fortifications +was constructed on scientific principles, under the direction of +Vauban. + +The citizens of Ypres took a prominent part in most of the great +events which distinguished the heroic period of Flemish history. In +July, 1302, a contingent of 1,200 chosen men, '500 of them clothed +in scarlet and the rest in black,' were set to watch the town and +castle of Courtrai during the Battle of the Golden Spurs, and in +the following year the victory was celebrated by the institution +of the Confraternity of the Archers of St. Sebastian, which still +exists at Ypres, the last survivor of the armed societies which +flourished there during the Middle Ages. Seven hundred burghers +of Ypres marched to Sluis, embarked in the Flemish boats which +harassed the French fleet during the naval fight of June, 1340, +and at the close of the campaign formed themselves into the +Confraternity of St. Michael, which lasted till the French invasion +of 1794. Forty years later we find no fewer than 5,000 of the men +of Ypres, who had now changed their politics, on the French side +at the Battle of Roosebeke, fighting in the thick mist upon the +plain between Ypres and Roulers on that fatal day which saw the +death of Philip van Artevelde and the triumph of the Leliarts. + +[Illustration: ADINKERQUE. At the Kermesse.] + +Next year, so unceasingly did the tide of war flow over the plain +of Flanders, an English army, commanded by Henry Spencer, Bishop +of Norwich, landed at Calais under the pretext of supporting the +partisans of Pope Urban VI., who then occupied the Holy See, against +the adherents of Pope Clement VII., who had established himself at +Avignon. The burghers of Ghent flocked to the English standard, +and the allies laid siege to Ypres, which was defended by the French +and the Leliarts, who followed Louis of Maele, Count of Flanders, +and maintained the cause of Clement. + +At that time the gateways were the only part of the fortifications +made of stone. The ramparts were of earth, planted on the exterior +slope with a thick mass of thorn-bushes, interlaced and strengthened +by posts. Outside there were more defences of wooden stockades, +and beyond them two ditches, divided by a dyke, on which was a +palisade of pointed stakes. The town, thus fortified, was defended +by about 10,000 men, and un June 8, 1383, the siege was begun by +a force consisting of 17,000 English and 20,000 Flemings of the +national party, most of whom came from Bruges and Ghent. + +The English had been told that the town would not offer a strong +resistance, and on the first day of the siege 1,000 of them tried +to carry it at once by assault. They were repulsed; and after that +assaults by the besiegers and sorties by the garrison continued +day after day, the loss of life on both sides being very great. +At last the besiegers, finding that they could not, in the face of +the shower of arrows, javelins, and stones which met them, break +through the palisades and the sharp thorn fences (those predecessors +of the barbed-wire entanglements of to-day), force the gates, or +carry the ramparts, built three wooden towers mounted on wheels, +and pushed them full of soldiers up to the gates. But the garrison +made a sortie, seized the towers, destroyed them, and killed or +captured the soldiers who manned them. + +Spencer on several occasions demanded the surrender of the town, +but all his proposals were rejected. The English pressed closer and +closer, but were repulsed with heavy losses whenever they delivered +an assault. The hopes of the garrison rose high on August 7, the +sixty-first day of the siege, when news arrived that a French army, +100,000 strong, accompanied by the forces of the Count of Flanders, +was marching to the relief of Ypres. Early next morning the English +made a fresh attempt to force their way into the town, but they +were once more driven back. A little later in the day they twice +advanced with the utmost bravery. Again they were beaten back. +So were the burghers of Ghent, whom the English reproached for +having deceived them by saying that Ypres would fall in three days, +and whose answer to this accusation was, a furious attack on one +of the gates, in which many of them fell. In the afternoon the +English again advanced, and succeeded in forcing their way through +part of the formidable thorn hedge; but it was of no avail, and once +more they had to retire, leaving heaps of dead behind them. After +a rest of some hours, another attack was made on seven different +parts of the town at the same time. This assault was the most furious +and bloody of the siege, but it was the last. Spencer saw that, in +spite of the splendid courage of his soldiers and of the Flemish +burghers, it would be impossible to take the town before the French +army arrived, and during the night the English, with their allies +from Ghent and Bruges, retired from before Ypres. The failure of +this campaign left Flanders at the mercy of France; but the death +of Count Louis of Maele, which took place in January, 1384, brought +in the House of Burgundy, under whose rule the Flemings enjoyed +a long period of prosperity and almost complete independence. + +It was believed in Ypres that the town had been saved by the +intercession of the Virgin Mary, its patron saint. In the Cathedral +Church of St. Martin the citizens set up an image of Notre, +Dame-de-Thuine, that is, Our Lady of the Enclosures, an allusion +to the strong barrier of thorns which had kept the enemy at bay; +and a kermesse, appointed to be held on the first Sunday of August +every year in commemoration of the siege, received the name of +the 'Thuindag,' or Day of the Enclosures.[*] The people of Ypres, +though they fought on the French side, had good reason to be proud +of the way in which they defended their homes; but the consequences +of the siege were disastrous, for the commerce of the town never +recovered the loss of the large working-class population which +left it at that time. + +[Footnote *: 'Thuin,' or 'tuin,' in Flemish means an enclosed space, +such as a garden plot.] + +[Illustration: A FARMSTEADING] + +The religious troubles of the sixteenth century left their mark +on Ypres as well as on the rest of Flanders. Everyone has read +the glowing sentences in which the historian of the Dutch Republic +describes the Cathedral of Antwerp, and tells how it was wrecked +by the reformers during the image-breaking in the summer of 1566. +What happened on the banks of the Scheldt appeals most to the +imagination; but all over Flanders the statues and the shrines, +the pictures and the stores of ecclesiastical wealth, with which +piety, or superstition, or penitence had enriched so many churches +and religious houses, became the objects of popular fury. There +had been field-preaching near Ypres as early as 1562.[*] Other +parts of West Flanders had been visited by the apostles of the New +Learning, and on August 15, 1566, the reformers swept down upon +Ypres and sacked the churches. + +[Footnote *: Motley, _Rise of the Dutch Republic_, part ii., chapter +vi.] + +In the awful tragedy which soon followed, when Parma came upon +the scene, that 'spectacle of human energy, human suffering, and +human strength to suffer, such as has not often been displayed +upon the stage of the world's events' the town had its share of +the persecutions and exactions which followed the march of the +Spanish soldiery; but for more than ten years a majority of the +burghers adhered to the cause of Philip. In July, 1578, however, +Ypres fell into the hands of the Protestants, and became their +headquarters in West Flanders. Five years later Alexander of Parma +besieged it. The siege lasted until April of the following year, +when the Protestants, worn out by famine, capitulated, and the town +was occupied by the Spaniards, who 'resorted to instant measures +for cleansing a place which had been so long in the hands of the +infidels, and, as the first step towards this purification, the +bodies of many heretics who had been buried for years were taken +from their graves and publicly hanged in their coffins. All living +adherents to the Reformed religion were instantly expelled from +the place.'[*] By this time the population was reduced to 5,000 +souls, and the fortifications were a heap of ruins. + +[Footnote *: Motley, _Rise of the Dutch Republic_, part ii., chapter +vi.] + +[Illustration: YPRES. Place du Musee (showing Top Part of the Belfry).] + +A grim memorial of those troublous times is still preserved at +Ypres. The Place du Musee is a quiet corner of the town, where a +Gothic house with double gables contains a collection of old paintings, +medals, instruments of torture, and some other curiosities. It was +the Bishop of Ypres who, at midnight on June 4, 1568, announced to +Count Egmont, in his prison at Brussels, that his hour had come; and +the cross-hilted sword, with its long straight blade, which hangs +on the wall of the Museum is the sword with which the executioner +'severed his head from his shoulders at a single blow' on the following +morning. The same weapon, a few minutes later, was used for the +despatch of Egmont's friend, Count Horn. + +Before the end of that dismal sixteenth century Flanders regained +some of the liberties for which so much blood had been shed; but +while the Protestant Dutch Republic rose in the north, the 'Catholic' +or 'Spanish' Netherlands in the south remained in the possession +of Spain until the marriage of Philip's daughter Isabella to the +Archduke Albert, when these provinces were given as a marriage +portion to the bride. This was in 1599. Though happier times followed +under the moderate rule of Albert and Isabella, war continued to +be the incessant scourge of Flanders, and during the marching and +countermarching of armies across this battlefield of Europe, Ypres +scarcely ever knew what peace meant. Four times besieged and four +times taken by the French in the wars of Louis XIV., the town had +no rest; and for miles all round it the fields were scarred by the +new system of attacking strong places which Vauban had introduced +into the art of war. Louis, accompanied by Schomberg and Luxembourg, +was himself present at the siege of 1678; and Ypres, having been ceded +to France by the Treaty of Nimeguen in that year, was afterwards +strengthened by fortifications constructed from plans furnished by +the great French engineer.[*] + +[Footnote *: Letter from Vauban to Louvois on the fortifications +of Ypres, 1689; Vereecke, pp. 325-357.] + +In the year 1689 Vauban speaks of Ypres as a place 'formerly great, +populous, and busy, but much reduced by the frequent sedition and +revolts of its inhabitants, and by the great wars which it has +endured.' And in this condition it has remained ever since. Though +the period which followed the Treaty of Rastadt in 1714, when Flanders +passed into the possession of the Emperor Charles VI., and became +a part of the 'Austrian Netherlands,' was a period of considerable +improvement, Ypres never recovered its position, not even during +the peaceful reign of the Empress Maria Theresa. The revolution +against Joseph II. disturbed everything, and in June, 1794, the town +yielded, after a short siege, to the army of the French Republic. +The name of Flanders disappeared from the map of Europe. The whole of +Belgium was divided, like France, with which it was now incorporated, +into _departements_, Ypres being in the Department of the Lys. For +twenty years, during the wars of the Republic, the Consulate, and +the Empire, though the conscription was a constant drain upon the +youth of Flanders, who went away to leave their bones on foreign +soil, nothing happened to disturb the quiet of the town, and the +fortifications were falling into decay when the return of Napoleon +from Elba set Europe in a blaze. During the Hundred Days guns and +war material were hurried over from England, the old defences were +restored, and new works constructed by the English engineers; but +the Battle of Waterloo rendered these preparations unnecessary, and +the military history of Ypres came to an end when the short-lived +Kingdom of the Netherlands was established by the Congress of Vienna, +though it was nominally a place of arms till 1852, when the +fortifications were destroyed. Nowadays everything is very quiet +and unwarlike. The bastions and lunettes, the casemates and moats, +which spread in every direction round the town, have almost entirely +disappeared, and those parts of the fortifications which remain +have been turned into ornamental walks.[*] + +[Footnote *: The evolution of Ypres from a feudal tower on an island +until it became a great fortress can be traced in a very interesting +volume of maps and plans published by M. Vereecke in 1858, as a +supplement to his _Histoire Militaire d'Ypres_. It shows the first +defensive works, those erected by Vauban, the state of the +fortifications between 1794 and 1814, and what the English engineers +did in 1815.] + +But while so little remains of the works which were constructed, +at such a cost and with so much labour, for the purposes of war, +the arts of peace, which once flourished at Ypres, have left a +more enduring monument. There is nothing in Bruges or any other +Flemish town which can compare for massive grandeur with the pile +of buildings at the west end of the Grand Place of Ypres. During +two centuries the merchants of Flanders, whose towns were the chief +centres of Western commerce and civilization, grew to be the richest +in Europe, and a great portion of the wealth which industry and +public spirit had accumulated was spent in erecting those noble +civic and commercial buildings which are still the glory of Flanders. +The foundation-stone of the Halle des Drapiers, or Cloth Hall, of +Ypres was laid by Baldwin of Constantinople, then Count of Flanders, +at the beginning of the thirteenth century, but more than 100 years +had passed away before it was completed. Though the name of the +architect who began it is unknown, the unity of design which +characterizes the work makes it probable that the original plans +were adhered to till the whole was finished. Nothing could be simpler +than the general idea; but the effect is very fine. The ground-floor +of the facade, about 150 yards long, is pierced by a number of +rectangular doors, over which are two rows of pointed windows, +each exactly above the other, and all of the same style. In the +upper row every second window is filled up, and contains the statue +of some historical character. At each end there is a turret; and +the belfry, a square with towers at the corners, rises from the +centre of the building. + +Various additions have been made from time to time to the original +Halle des Drapiers since it was finished in the year 1304, and of +these the 'Nieuwerck' is the most interesting. The east end of the +Halle was for a long time hidden by a number of wooden erections, +which, having been put up for various purposes after the main building +was finished, were known as the 'Nieuwe wercken,' or new works. +They were pulled down in the beginning of the seventeenth century, +and replaced by the stone edifice, in the style of the Spanish +Renaissance, which now goes by the name of the Nieuwerck, with its +ten shapely arches supported by slender pillars, above whose sculptured +capitals rise tiers of narrow windows and the steeply-pitched roof +with gables of curiously carved stone. Ypres had ceased to be a +great commercial city long before the Nieuwerck was built; but the +Cloth Hall was a busy place during the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries, when Ypres shared with Bruges the responsibility of +managing the Flemish branch of the Hanseatic League. + +The extensive system of monopolies which the League maintained +was, as a matter of course, the cause of much jealousy and bad +feeling. In Flanders, Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres defended their own +privileges against other towns, and quarrelled amongst themselves. +The merchants of Ypres had a monopoly which forbade all weaving for +three leagues round the town, under a penalty of fifty livres and +confiscation of the looms and linen woven; but the weavers in the +neighbouring communes infringed this monopoly, and sold imitations of +Ypres linen cloth on all hands. There was constant trouble between +the people of Ypres and their neighbours at Poperinghe. Sometimes +the weavers of Ypres, to enforce their exclusive privileges, marched +in arms against Poperinghe, and sometimes the men of Poperinghe +retaliated by attacking their powerful rivals. Houses were burnt, +looms were broken up, and lives were lost in these struggles, which +were so frequent that for a long time something like a chronic +state of war existed between the two places. + +[Illustration: YPRES. Arcade under the Nieuwerk.] + +Besides the troubles caused by the jealousy of other towns, intestine +disputes arising out of the perpetual contest between labour and +capital went on from year to year within the walls of Ypres. There, +as in the other Flemish towns, a sharp line was drawn between the +working man, by whose hands the linen was actually woven, and the +merchants, members of the Guilds, by whom it was sold. In these +towns, which maintained armies and made treaties of peace, and whose +friendship was sought by princes and statesmen, the artisans, whose +industry contributed so much to the importance of the community, +resented any infringement of their legal rights. By law the magistrates +of Ypres were elected annually, and because this had not been done +in 1361 the people rose in revolt against the authorities. The mob +invaded the Hotel de Ville, where the magistrates were assembled. +The Baillie, Jean Deprysenaere, trusting to his influence as the +local representative of the Count of Flanders, left the council +chamber, and tried to appease the rioters. He was set upon and +killed. Then the crowd rushed into the council chamber, seized +the other magistrates, and locked them up in the belfry, where +they remained prisoners for some days. The leaders of the revolt +met, and resolved to kill their prisoners, and this sentence was +executed on the Burgomaster and two of the Sheriffs, who were beheaded +in front of the Halle in the presence of their colleagues.[*] It +was by such stern deeds that the fierce democracy of the Flemish +communes preserved their rights. + +[Footnote *: Vereecke, p. 41.] + +Each town, however, stood for itself alone. The idea of government +by the populace on the marketplace was common to them all, but they +were kept apart by the exclusive spirit of commercial jealousy. +The thirst for material prosperity consumed them; but they had no +bond of union, and each was ready to advance its own interests +at the expense of its rivals. Therefore, either in the face of +foreign invasion, or when the policy of some Count led to revolt +and civil war, it was seldom that the people of Flanders were united. +'L'Union fait la Force' is the motto of modern Belgium, but in the +Middle Ages there was no powerful central authority round which the +communes rallied. Hence the spectacle of Ghent helping an English +army to storm the ramparts of Ypres, or of the Guildsmen of Bruges +girding on their swords to strike a blow for Count Louis of Maele +against the White Hoods who marched from Ghent. Hence the permanent +unrest of these Flemish towns, the bickerings and the sheddings of +blood, the jealousy of trade pitted against trade or of harbour +against harbour, the insolence in the hour of triumph and the abject +submission in the hour of defeat, and all the evils which discord +brought upon the country. No town suffered more than Ypres from +the distracted state of Flanders, which, combined with the ravages +of war and the religious dissensions of the sixteenth century, +reduced it from the first rank amongst the cities of the Netherlands +to something very like the condition of a quiet country town in an +out-of-the-way corner of England. That is what the Ypres of to-day +is like--a sleepy country town, with clean, well-kept streets, dull +and uninteresting save for the stately Cloth Hall, which stands +there a silent memorial of the past. + + + + +FURNES--THE PROCESSION OF PENITENTS + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FURNES--THE PROCESSION OF PENITENTS + +The traveller wandering amongst the towns and villages in this +corner of West Flanders is apt to feel that he is on a kind of +sentimental journey as he moves from place to place, and finds +himself everywhere surrounded by things which belong to the past +rather than to the present. The very guidebooks are eloquent if we +read between the lines. This place 'was formerly of much greater +importance.' That 'was formerly celebrated for its tapestries.' +From this Hotel de Ville 'the numerous statuettes with which the +building was once embellished have all disappeared.' The tower +of that church has been left unfinished for the last 500 years. +'Fuimus' might be written on them all. And so, some twenty miles +north of Ypres, on a plain which in the seventeenth century was +so studded with earthen redoubts and serrated by long lines of +field-works and ditches that the whole countryside between Ypres +and Dunkirk was virtually one vast entrenched camp, we come to +the town of Furnes, another of the places on which time has laid +its heavy hand. + +The early history of Furnes is obscure, though it is generally +supposed to have grown up round a fortress erected by Baldwin +Bras-de-Fer to check the inroads of the Normans. It suffered much, +like its neighbours, from wars and revolutions,[*] and is now one +of the quietest of the Flemish towns. The market-place is a small +square, quaintly picturesque, surrounded by clusters of little +brick houses with red and blue tiled roofs, low-stepped gables, +and deep mouldings round the windows. Behind these dwelling-places +the bold flying buttresses of the Church of Ste. Walburge, whose +relics were brought to Furnes by Judith, wife of Baldwin Bras-de-Fer, +and the tower of St. Nicholas, lift themselves on the north and +east; and close together in a corner to the west are the dark gray +Hotel de Ville and Palais de Justice, in a room of which the judges +of the Inquisition used to sit. + +[Footnote *: 'Furnes etait devenue un _oppidium_, aux termes d'une +charte de 1183, qui avait a se defendre a la fois contre les incursions +des etrangers et les attaques d'une population "indocile et cruelle," +comme l'appelle l'Abbe de Saint Riquier Hariulf, toujours dechiree +par les factions et toujours prete a la revolte.'--GILLIODTS VAN +SEVEREN: _Recueil des Anciennes Coutumes de la Belgique; Quartier +de Furnes_, vol. i., p. 28.] + +[Illustration: FURNES. Grand Place and Belfry.] + +Though some features are common to nearly all the Flemish towns--the +market-place, the belfry, the Hotel de Ville, the old gateways, +and the churches, with their cherished paintings--yet each of them +has generally some association of its own. In Bruges we think of +how the merchants bought and sold, how the gorgeous city rose, +clothed itself in all the colours of the rainbow, glittered for +a time, and sank in darkness. In the crowded streets of modern +Ghent, the busy capital of East Flanders, we seem to catch a glimpse +of bold Jacques van Artevelde shouldering his way up to the Friday +Market, or of turbulent burghers gathering there to set Pope, or +Count of Flanders, or King of Spain at defiance. Ypres and its flat +meadows suggest one of the innumerable paintings of the Flemish +wars, the 'battle-pieces' in which the Court artists took such +pride: the town walls with ditch and glacis before them, and within +them the narrow-fronted houses, and the flag flying from steeple +or belfry; the clumsy cannon puffing out clouds of smoke; the King +of France capering on a fat horse and holding up his baton in an +attitude of command in the foreground; and in the distance the +tents of the camp, where the travelling theatre was set up, and +the musicians fiddled, and an army of serving-men waited on the +rouged and powdered ladies who had followed the army into Flanders. + +[Illustration: FURNES. Peristyle of Town Hall and Palais de Justice.] + +Furnes, somehow, always recalls the Spanish period. The Hotel de +Ville, a very beautiful example of the Renaissance style, with +its rare hangings of Cordovan leather and its portraits of the +Archduke Albert and his bride, the Infanta Isabella, is scarcely +changed since it was built soon after the death of Philip II. The +Corps de Garde Espagnol and the Pavilion des Officiers Espagnols +in the market-place, once the headquarters of the whiskered bravos +who wrought such ills to Flanders, are now used by the Municipal +Council of the town as a museum and a public library; but the stones +of this little square were often trodden by the persecutors, with +their guards and satellites, in the years when Peter Titelmann +the Inquisitor stalked through the fields of Flanders, torturing +and burning in the name of the Catholic Church and by authority +of the Holy Office. The spacious room in which the tribunal of the +Inquisition sat is nowadays remarkable only for its fine proportions +and venerable appearance; but, though it was not erected until +after the Spanish fury had spent its force, and at a time when +wiser methods of government had been introduced, it reminds us of +the days when the maxims of Torquemada were put in force amongst +the Flemings by priests more wicked and merciless than any who +could be found in Spain. And in the market-place the people must +often have seen the dreadful procession by means of which the Church +sought to strike terror into the souls of men. Those public orgies +of clerical intolerance were the suitable consummation of the crimes +which had been previously committed in the private conclave of +the Inquisitors. The burning or strangling of a heretic was not +accompanied by so much pomp and circumstance in small towns like +Furnes as in the great centres, where multitudes, led by the highest +in the land, were present to enjoy the spectacle; but the Inquisition +of the Netherlands, under which Flanders groaned for so many years, +was, as Philip himself once boasted, 'much more pitiless than that +of Spain.' + +The groans of the victims will never more be heard in the +torture-chamber, nor will crowds assemble in the market-place to +watch the cortege of the _auto-da-fe_; but every year the famous +Procession of Penitents, which takes place on the last Sunday of +July, draws many strangers to Furnes. + +It is said in Bruges that the ghost of a Spanish soldier, condemned +to expiate eternally a foul crime done at the bidding of the Holy +Office, walks at midnight on the Quai Vert, like Hamlet's father +on the terrace at Elsinore; and superstitious people might well +fancy that a spectre appears in the market-place of Furnes on the +summer's night when the town is preparing for the annual ceremony. +The origin of the procession was this: In the year 1650 a soldier +named Mannaert, only twenty-two years old, being in garrison at +Furnes, went to Confession and Communion in the Chapel of the Capucins. +After he had received the consecrated wafer, he was persuaded by one +of his comrades, Mathurin Lejeusne, to take it out of his mouth, +wrap it in a cloth, and, on returning to his lodging, fry it over +a fire, under the delusion that by reducing it to powder he would +make himself invulnerable. The young man was arrested, confessed his +guilt, and himself asked for punishment. Condemned to be strangled, +he heard the sentence without a murmur, and went to his death singing +the penitential psalms. Soon afterwards Mathurin Lejeusne, the +instigator of the sacrilege, was shot for some breach of military +duty. This was regarded as a proof of Divine justice, and the citizens +resolved that something must be done to appease the wrath of God, +which they feared would fall upon their town because of the outrage +done, as they believed, to the body of His Son. A society calling +itself the 'Confrerie de la Sodalite du Sauveur Crucifie et de +la Sainte Mere Marie, se trouvant en douleur dessous la Croix, +sur Mont Calvaire,' had been formed a few years before at Furnes, +and the members now decided that a Procession of Penitents should +walk through the streets every summer and represent to the people +the story of the Passion. + +[Illustration: NIEUPORT. Interior of Church.] + +Though the procession at Furnes is a thing of yesterday compared to +the Procession of the Holy Blood at Bruges, it is far more suggestive +of mediaevalism. The hooded faces of the penitents, the quaint wooden +figures representing Biblical characters, the coarse dresses, the +tawdry colours, the strangely weird arrangement of the whole business, +take us back into the monkish superstitions of the Dark Ages, with +their mystery plays. It is best seen from one of the windows of +the Spanish House, or from the balcony of the Hotel de Ville, on +a sultry day, when the sky is heavy with black clouds, and thunder +growls over the plain of Flanders, and hot raindrops fall now and +then into the muddy streets. The first figure which appears is a +veiled penitent bearing the standard of the Sodality. Then come, +one after another, groups of persons representing various scenes +in the Bible story, each group preceded by a penitent carrying +an inscription to explain what follows. Abraham with his sword +conducts Isaac to the sacrifice on Mount Moriah. A penitent holding +the serpent and the cross walks before Moses. Two penitents wearily +drag a car on which Joseph and Mary are seen seated in the stable +at Bethlehem. The four shepherds and the three Magi follow. Then +comes the flight into Egypt, with Mary on an ass led by Joseph, +the infant Christ in her arms. Later we see the doctors of the +Temple walking in two rows, disputing with the young Jesus in their +midst. The triumphal entry into Jerusalem is represented by a crowd +of schoolchildren waving palm-branches and singing hosannahs round +Jesus mounted on an ass. The agony in the garden, Peter denying +his Lord and weeping bitterly, Jesus crowned with thorns, Pilate +in his judgment-hall, the Saviour staggering beneath the cross, +the Crucifixion itself, the Resurrection and the Ascension, are +all shown with the crude realism of the Middle Ages. There are +penitents bearing ponderous crosses on their shoulders, or carrying +in their hands the whips, the nails, the thorns, the veil of the +Temple rent in twain, a picture of the darkened sun, and other +symbols of the Passion. At the end, amidst torches and incense +and solemn chanting, the Host is exhibited for the adoration of +the crowd. + +[Illustration: FURNES. Tower of St. Nicholas.] + +Much of this spectacle is grotesque, and even ludicrous; but there +is also a great deal that is terribly real, for the penitents are +not actors playing a part, but are all persons who have come to +Furnes for the purpose of doing penance. They are disguised by +the dark brown robes which cover them from head to foot, so that +they can see their way only through the eyeholes in the hoods which +hide their faces; but as they pass silently along, bending under +the heavy crosses, or holding out before them scrolls bearing such +words as, 'All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn,' 'They pierced +My hands and My feet,' or, 'See if there be any sorrow like unto +My sorrow,' there are glimpses of delicate white hands grasping the +hard wood of the crosses, and of small, shapely feet bare in the +mud. What sighs, what tears and vain regrets, what secret tragedies +of passion, guilt, remorse, may not be concealed amongst the doleful +company who tread their own Via Dolorosa on that pilgrimage of +sorrow through the streets of Furnes! + +[Illustration: FURNES. In St. Walburge's Church.] + + + + +NIEUPORT--THE BATTLE OF THE DUNES + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NIEUPORT--THE BATTLE OF THE DUNES + +On the morning of July 2, in the year 1600, two armies--Spaniards, +under the Archduke Albert, and Dutchmen, under Prince Maurice of +Nassau--stood face to face amongst the dunes near Nieuport, where +the river Yser falls into the sea about ten miles west from Ostend. + +In a field to the east of Nieuport there is a high, square tower, +part of a monastery and church erected by the Templars in the middle +of the twelfth century, which, though it escaped complete destruction, +was set on fire and nearly consumed when the town was attacked and +laid in ruins by the English and the burghers of Ghent in 1383, +the year of their famous siege of Ypres. It is now in a half-ruinous +condition, but in July, 1600, it was an important part of the +fortifications, and from the top the watchmen of the Spanish garrison +could see the country all round to a great distance beyond the +broad moat which then surrounded the strong walls of Nieuport. +A few miles inland, to the southwest, in the middle of the plain +of Flanders, were the houses of Furnes, grouped round the church +tower of St. Nicholas. To the north a wide belt of sandhills (the +'dunes'), with the sea beyond them, extended far past Ostend on +the east, and to the harbour of Dunkirk on the west. Nearer, on +the landward side of the dunes to the east, and within less than a +mile of each other, were the villages of Westende and Lombaerdzyde. +Close at hand, all round Nieuport, there were numerous small lakes +and watercourses connected with the channel of the Yser, which, +flowing past the town, widened out until it joined the sea, and +became a harbour, which on that morning was full of shipping. + +A new chapter had just begun in the history of West Flanders when +the Dutchmen and the Spaniards thus met to slaughter each other +amongst the sand and rushes of the dunes. Philip II. had offered to +cede the Spanish Netherlands to his daughter, the Infanta Isabella, +on condition that a marriage was arranged between her and the Archduke +Albert of Austria. After the death of Philip II. this offer was +confirmed by his successor, Philip III., and the wedding took place +in April, 1599. + +[Illustration: NIEUPORT. A Fair Parishioner.] + +Albert and Isabella were both entering on the prime of life, the +Archduke being forty and the Infanta thirty-two at the time of +their marriage, and were both of a character admirably fitted for +the lofty station to which they had been called. In their portraits, +which hang, very often frayed and tarnished, on the walls of the +Hotel de Ville of many a Flemish town, there is nothing very royal +or very attractive; but, even after making every allowance for the +flattery of contemporary historians, there can be little doubt +that their popularity was well deserved--well deserved if even a +part of what has been said about them is true. The Archduke is +always said to have taken Philip II. as a model of demeanour, but +he had none of the worst faults of the sullen, powerful despot, +with that small mind, that 'incredibly small' mind of his, and +cold heart, cold alike to human suffering and human love, who had +held the Flemings, whom he hated, for so many years in the hollow +of his hand. His grave mien and reserved habits, probably acquired +during his sojourn at the Court of Spain, were distasteful to the +gay and pleasure-loving people of Flanders, who would have preferred +a Prince more like Charles V., whose versatility enabled him to +adapt himself to the customs of each amongst the various races over +whom he ruled. Nevertheless, if they did not love him they respected +him, and were grateful for the moderation and good feeling which +distinguished his reign, and gave their distracted country, after +thirty years of civil war, a period of comparative tranquillity. + +The Infanta Isabella, _debonnaire_, affable, tolerant, and +noble-hearted, as she is described, gained the hearts of the Flemings +as her husband never did. 'One could not find any Court more truly +royal or more brilliant in its public fetes, which sometimes recall +the splendid epoch of the House of Burgundy. Isabella loves a country +life. She is often to be seen on horseback, attending the tournaments, +leading the chase, flying the hawk, taking part in the sports of +the bourgeoise, shooting with the crossbow, and carrying off the +prize.' Above all things, her works of charity endeared her to the +people. In time of war she established hospitals for the wounded, +for friends and enemies alike, where she visited them, nursed them, +and dressed their wounds with her own hands, with heroic courage +and tenderness.[*] + +[Footnote *: De Gerlache, i. 260.] + +[Illustration: NIEUPORT. Hall and Vicarage.] + +Even on their first coming into Flanders, before their characters +were known except by hearsay, they were received with extraordinary +enthusiasm. Travelling by way of Luxembourg, they came to Namur, where +their first visit was made the occasion of a military fete, conducted +under the personal supervision of Comte Florent de Berlaimont. At +Nivelles the Duc d'Arschot paid out of his own purse the cost of +the brilliant festivities to which the people of Brabant flocked +in order to bid their new rulers welcome, and himself led the +procession, accompanied by the Archbishop of Malines and the Bishop +of Antwerp. So they journeyed on amidst scenes of public rejoicing +until they came to Brussels, where they established their Court in +accordance with the customs and ceremonies which had been usual +under the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of Spain. + +But when the Archdukes, as they were called, passed from town to +town on this Royal progress, the phantoms of war, pestilence, and +famine hung over the land. The great cities of Flanders had been +deserted by thousands of their inhabitants. The sea trade of the +country had been destroyed by the vigorous blockade which the Dutch +ships of war maintained along the coast. Religious intolerance +had driven the most industrious of the working classes to find a +refuge in Holland or England. Villages lay in ruins, surrounded +by untilled fields and gardens run to seed. Silent looms and empty +warehouses were seen on every side. To such a pass had the disastrous +policy of the Escurial brought this fair province of the Spanish +Empire! From all parts of Flanders the cry for peace went up, but +the time for peace was not yet come.[*] + +[Footnote *: _L'Abbe Nameche_, xxi. 6-8.] + +The new reign had just begun when Maurice of Nassau suddenly invaded +Flanders with a great force, and laid siege to Nieuport, the garrison +of which, reinforced by an army, at the head of which the Archduke +Albert had hurried across Flanders, was under the command of the +Archduke himself, and many Spanish Generals of great experience +in the wars. + +[Illustration: NIEUPORT. The Quay, with Eel-boats and Landing-stages.] + +Though the Court at Brussels had been taken by surprise, the Dutch +army was in a position of great danger. Part of it lay on the west +side of the Yser, and part to the east, amongst the dunes near +Lombaerdzyde and Westende, with a bridge of boats thrown across +the river as their only connection. Their ships were at anchor +close to the shore; but Prince Maurice frankly told his men that +it was useless to think of embarking in case of defeat, and that, +therefore, they must either win the day or perish there, for the +Spaniards were before them under the protection of Nieuport, the river +divided them, the sea was behind them, and it would be impossible +for a beaten army to escape by retreating through the dunes in the +direction of Ostend. + +Such was the position of affairs beneath the walls of Nieuport +at sunrise on July 2, 1600. The morning was spent by the Dutch +in preparing for battle. Towards noon the Spanish leaders held +a council of war, at which it was decided to attack the enemy as +soon as possible, and about three o'clock the battle began. A stiff +breeze from the west, blowing up the English Channel, drove clouds +of sand into the eyes of the Spaniards, and the bright rays of the +afternoon sun, shining in their faces as they advanced to the attack, +dazzled and confused them. But, in spite of these disadvantages, it +seemed at first as if the fortunes of the day were to go in their +favour. + +The bridge of boats across the Yser was broken, and some of the +Dutch regiments, seized by a sudden panic, began to retreat towards +the sea; but, finding it impossible to reach the ships, they rallied, +and began once more to fight with all the dogged courage of their +race. For some hours the battle was continued with equal bravery +on both sides, the Spaniards storming a battery which the Dutch +had entrenched amongst the dunes, and the Dutch defending it so +desperately that the dead and wounded lay piled in heaps around +it. But at last the Spanish infantry were thrown into confusion +by a charge of horsemen; the Archduke Albert was wounded, and had +to retire from the front to have his injuries attended to. Prince +Maurice ordered a general advance of all his army, and in a few +minutes the enemy were fleeing from the battlefield, leaving behind +them 3,000 dead, 800 prisoners, and more than 100 standards. The +loss on the Dutch side was about 2,000. + +The Archduke Albert, who had narrowly escaped being himself taken +prisoner, succeeded in entering Nieuport safely with what remained +of his army. The town remained in the hands of the Spaniards, for +Prince Maurice, after spending some days in vain attempts to capture +it, marched with his whole force to Ostend, where soon afterwards +began the celebrated siege, which was to last for three long years, +and about which all Europe never tired of talking.[*] + +[Footnote *: 'Le siege d'Ostende fut, pendant ces trois ans, la +fable et la nouvelle de l'Europe; on ne se lassait pas d'en parler. +Des princes, des etrangers de toutes les nations venaient y +assister.'--_L'Abbe Nameche_, xxi. 24.] + +[Illustration: NIEUPORT. The Town Hall.] + +The history of Nieuport since those days has been the history of +a gradual fall. Its sea trade disappeared slowly but surely; the +fishing industry languished; the population decreased year by year; +and it has not shared to any appreciable extent in the prosperity +which has enriched other parts of Flanders since the Revolution of +1830. It is now a quiet, sleepy spot, with humble streets, which +remind one of some fishing village on the east coast of Scotland. +Men and women sit at the doors mending nets or preparing bait. The +boats, with their black hulls and dark brown sails, move lazily +up to the landing-stages, where a few small craft, trading along +the coast, lie moored. Barges heavily laden with wood are pulled +laboriously through the locks of the canals which connect the Yser +with Ostend and Furnes. The ancient fortifications have long since +disappeared, with the exception of a few grass-grown mounds; and +only the grim tower of the Templars, standing by itself in a field +on the outskirts of the town, remains to show that this insignificant +place was once a mighty stronghold. + +In those old Flemish towns, however, it is always possible to find +something picturesque; and here we have the Cloth Hall, with its +low arches opening on the market-place, and the Gothic church, +one of the largest in Flanders, with its porch and tower, where +the bell-ringers play the chimes and the people pass devoutly to +the services of the church. But that is all. Nieuport has few +attractions nowadays, and is chiefly memorable in Flemish history +because under its walls they fought that bloody 'Battle of the +Dunes,' in which the stubborn strength and obstinacy of the Dutch +overcame the fiery valour of the Spaniards. + +They are all well-nigh forgotten now, obstinate Dutchman and valiant +Spaniard alike. Amongst the dunes not a vestige remains of the +field-works for which they fought. Bones, broken weapons and shattered +breastplates, and all the debris of the fight, were long ago buried +fathoms deep beneath mounds of drifting sand. Old Nieuport--Nieuport +Ville, as they call it now--for which so much blood was shed, is +desolate and dreary with its small industries and meagre commerce; +but a short walk to the north brings us to Nieuport-Bains, and to +the gay summer life which pulsates all along the Flemish coast, +from La Panne on the west to the frontiers of Holland. + +[Illustration: NIEUPORT. Church Port (Evensong).] + + + + +THE COAST OF FLANDERS + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE COAST OF FLANDERS + +To walk from Nieuport Ville to the Digue de Mer at Nieuport-Bains +is to pass in a few minutes from the old Flanders, the home of +so much romance, the scene of so many stirring deeds, from the +market-places with the narrow gables heaped up in piles around +them, from the belfries soaring to the sky, from the winding streets +and the narrow lanes, in which the houses almost touch each other +from the tumble-down old hostelries, from the solemn aisles where +the candles glimmer and the dim red light glows before the altar, +from the land of Bras-de-Fer, and Thierry d'Alsace, and Memlinc, +and Van Eyck, and Rubens, the land which was at once the Temple +and the Golgotha of Europe, into the clear, broad light of modern +days. + +The Flemish coast, from the frontiers of France to the frontiers +of Holland, is throughout the same in appearance. The sea rolls +in and breaks upon the yellow beach, which extends from east to +west for some seventy kilometres in an irregular line, unbroken +by rocks or cliffs. Above the beach are the dunes, a long range +of sandhills, tossed into all sorts of queer shapes by the wind, +on which nothing grows but rushes or stunted Lombardy poplars, +and which reach their highest point, the Hoogen-Blekker, about 100 +feet above the sea, near Coxyde, a fishing village four or five +miles from Nieuport. Behind the dunes a strip of undulating ground +('Ter Streep'), seldom more than a bare mile in width, covered with +scanty vegetation, moss, and bushes, connects the barren sandhills +with the cultivated farms, green fields, and woodlands of the Flemish +plain. On the other side of the Channel the chalk cliffs and rocky +coast of England have kept the waves in check; but the dunes were, +for many long years, the only barrier against the encroachments +of the sea on Flanders. They are, however, a very weak defence +against the storms of autumn and winter. The sand drifts like snow +before the wind, and the outlines of these miniature mountain ranges +change often in a single night. At one time, centuries ago, this +part of Flanders, which is now so bare, was, it is pretty clear, +covered by forests, the remains of which are still sometimes found +beneath the subsoil inland and under the sea. When the great change +came is unknown, but the process was probably gradual. At an early +period, here, as in Holland, the fight against the invasions of the +sea began, and the first dykes are said to have been constructed +in the tenth century. The first was known as the Evendyck, and +ran from Heyst to Wenduyne. Others followed, but they were swept +away, and now only a few traces of them are to be found, buried +beneath the sand and moss.[*] + +[Footnote *: Bortier, _Le Littoral de la Flandre au IXe et au XIXe +Siecles._] + +[Illustration: THE DUNES. A Stormy Evening.] + +The wild storms of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries changed +the aspect of the coast of Flanders. Nieuport rose in consequence +of one of these convulsions of Nature, when the inhabitants of +Lombaerdzyde, which was then a seaport, were driven by the tempests +to the inland village of Santhoven, the name of which they changed +to 'Neoportus'--the new harbour. This was in the beginning of the +twelfth century, and thenceforth the struggle against the waves +went on incessantly. Lands were granted by Thierry d'Alsace on +condition that the owner should construct dykes, and Baldwin of +Constantinople appointed guardians of the shore, charged with the +duty of watching the sea and constructing defensive works. But the +struggle was carried on under the utmost difficulties. In the twelfth +century the sea burst in with resistless force upon the low-lying +ground, washing away the dunes and swallowing up whole towns. The +inroads of the waves, the heavy rains, and the earthquakes, made +life so unendurable that there were thousands who left their homes +and emigrated to Germany. + +Later, in the thirteenth century, there was a catastrophe of appalling +dimensions, long known as the 'Great Storm,' when 40,000 Flemish +men and women perished. This was the same tempest which overran +the Dutch coast, and formed the Zuyder Zee, those 1,400 square +miles of water which the Dutch are about to reclaim and form again +into dry land. In the following century the town of Scarphout, in +West Flanders, was overwhelmed, and the inhabitants built a new +town for themselves on higher ground, and called it Blankenberghe, +which is now one of the most important watering-places on the coast. + +Ever since those days this constant warfare against the storms +has continued, and the sea appears to be bridled; but anyone who +has watched the North Sea at high tide on a stormy day beating +on the shores of Flanders, and observed how the dunes yield to +the pressure of the wind and waves, and crumble away before his +eyes, must come to the conclusion that the peril of the ocean is +not yet averted, and can understand the meaning of the great modern +works, the _digues de mer_, or sea-fronts, as they would be called +in England, which are being gradually constructed at such immense +cost all along the coast. + +A most interesting and, indeed, wonderful thing in the recent history +of the Netherlands is the rapid development of the Flemish littoral +from a waste of sand, with here and there a paltry fishing hamlet +and two or three small towns, into a great cosmopolitan pleasure +resort. Seventy-five years ago, when Belgium became an independent +country, and King Leopold I. ascended the throne, Ostend and Nieuport +were the only towns upon the coast which were of any size; but +Ostend was then a small fortified place, with a harbour wholly +unsuited for modern commerce, and Nieuport, in a state of decadence, +though it possessed a harbour, was a place of no importance. To-day +the whole coast is studded with busy watering-places, about twenty +of them, most of which have come into existence within the last +fifteen years, with a resident population of about 60,000, which +is raised by visitors in summer to, it is said, nearly 125,000. The +dunes, which the old Counts of Flanders fought so hard to preserve +from the waves, and which were at the beginning of the present +century mere wastes of sand, a sort of 'no man's land,' of little +or no use except for rabbit-shooting, are now valuable properties, +the price of which is rising every year. + +The work of turning the sand into gold, for that is what the development +of the Flemish coast comes to, has been carried out partly by the +State and partly by private persons. In early times this belt of +land upon the margin of the sea was held by the Counts of Flanders, +who treated the ridge of sandhills above high-water mark as a natural +rampart against the waves, and granted large tracts of the flat +ground which lay behind to various religious houses. At the French +Revolution these lands were sold as Church property at a very low +figure, and were afterwards allowed, in many cases, to fall out of +cultivation by the purchasers. So great a portion of the district +was sold that at the present time only a small portion of the dune +land is the property of the State--the narrow strip between Mariakerke +and Middelkerke on the west of Ostend, and that which lies between +Ostend and Blankenberghe on the east. The larger portions, which +are possessed by private owners, are partly the property of the +descendants of those who bought them at the Revolution, and partly +of building societies, incorporated for the purpose of developing +what Mr. Hall Caine once termed the 'Visiting Industry'--that is +to say, the trade in tourists and seaside visitors.[*] + +[Footnote *: Letter to the Manx Reform League, November, 1903.] + +[Illustration: AN OLD FARMER] + +Plage de Westende, Le Coq, and Duinbergen--three charming summer +resorts--have been created by building societies. Nieuport-Bains +and La Panne have been developed by the owners of the adjoining +lands, the families of Crombez and Calmeyn. Wenduyne, on the other +hand, which lies between Le Coq and Blankenberghe, has been made +by the State, while the management of Blankenberghe, Heyst, and +Middelkerke, as bathing stations, is in the hands of their communal +councils. + +On the coast of Flanders, Ostend--'La Reine des Plages'--is, it +need hardly be said, the most important place, and its rise has +been very remarkable. Less than fifty years ago the population was +in all about 15,000. During the last fifteen years it has increased +by nearly 15,000, and now amounts to about 40,000 in round numbers. +The increase in the number of summer visitors has been equally +remarkable. In the year 1860 the list of strangers contained 9,700 +names; three years ago it contained no less than 42,000. This floating +population of foreign visitors who come to Ostend is cosmopolitan +to an extent unknown at any watering-place in England. In 1902 +11,000 English, 8,000 French, 5,000 Germans, and 2,000 Americans +helped to swell the crowds who walked on the sea-front, frequented +the luxurious and expensive hotels, or left their money on the +gaming-tables at the Kursaal. On one day--August 15, 1902--7,000 +persons bathed.[*] + +[Footnote *: I give these figures on the authority of M. Paul Otlet, +Advocate, of Brussels, to whom I am indebted for much information +regarding the development of the coast of Flanders. See also an +article by M. Otlet in _Le Cottage_, May 15 to June 15, 1904.] + +Blankenberghe, with its 30,000 summer visitors, comes next in importance +to Ostend, while both Heyst and Middelkerke are crowded during +the season. But the life at these towns is not so agreeable as at +the smaller watering-places. The hotels are too full, and have, +as a rule, very little except their cheapness to recommend them. +There is usually a body calling itself the _comite des fetes_, +the members of which devote themselves for two months every summer +to devising amusements, sports, and competitions of various kinds, +instead of leaving people to amuse themselves in their own way, +so that hardly a day passes on which the strains of a second-rate +band are not heard in the local Kursaal, or a night which is not +made hideous by a barrel-organ, to which the crowd is dancing on +the _digue_. At the smaller places, however, though these also +have their _comite des fetes_, one escapes to a great extent from +these disagreeable surroundings. + +May, June, and September are the pleasantest months upon the coast +of Flanders, for the visitors are not so numerous, and even in +mid-winter the dunes are worth a visit. Then the hotels and villas +fronting the sea are closed, and their windows boarded up. The +bathing-machines are removed from the beach, and stand in rows in +some sheltered spot. The _digue_, a broad extent of level brickwork, +is deserted, and the wind sweeps along it, scattering foam and +covering it with sand and sprays of tangled seaweed. The mossy +surface of the dunes is frozen hard as iron, and often the hailstones +rush in furious blasts before the wind. For league after league +there is not a sign of life, except the sea-birds flying low near +the shore, or the ships rising and falling in the waves far out +to sea. In the winter months the coast of Flanders is bleak and +stormy, but the air in these solitudes is as health-giving as in +any other part of Europe. + +Of late years the Government, represented by Comte de Smet de Naeyer, +has bestowed much attention on the development of the littoral, +and King Leopold II. has applied his great business talents to +the subject. Large sums of money have been voted by the Belgian +Parliament for the construction of public works and the extension +of the means of communication from place to place. There is a light +railway, the 'Vicinal,' which runs along the whole coast, at a +short distance from the shore, from Knocke, on the east, to La +Panne in the extreme west, and which is connected with the system of +State railways at various points. From Ostend, through Middelkerke, +to Plage de Westende, an electric railway has been constructed, +close to the beach and parallel to the Vicinal (which is about +a mile inland), on which trains run every ten minutes during the +summer season. As an instance of the speed and energy with which +these works for the convenience of the public are carried out, +when once they have been decided upon, it may be mentioned that the +contract for the portion of the electric line between Middelkerke +and Plage de Westende, a distance of about a mile and a half, was +signed on May 9, that five days later 200 workmen began to cut +through the dunes, embank and lay the permanent way, and that on +June 25, in spite of several interruptions owing to drifting sand +and heavy rains, the first train of the regular service arrived +at Plage de Westende. + +[Illustration: LA PANNE. Interior of a Flemish Inn.] + +A large sum, amounting to several millions of francs, is voted +every year for the protection of the shores of Flanders against +the encroachments of the sea, by the construction of these solid +embankments of brickwork and masonry, which will, in the course +of a few years, extend in an unbroken line along the whole coast +from end to end. The building of these massive sea-walls is a work +of great labour and expense, for what seems to be an impregnable +embankment, perhaps 30 feet high and 90 feet broad, solid and strong +enough to resist the most violent breakers, will be undermined and +fall to pieces in a few hours, if not made in the proper way. A +_digue_, no matter how thick, which rests on the sand alone will +not last. A thick bed of green branches bound together must first +be laid down as a foundation: this is strengthened by posts driven +through it into the sand. Heavy timbers, resting on bundles of +branches lashed together, are wedged into the foundations, and +slope inwards and upwards to within a few feet of the height to +which it is intended to carry the _digue_. On the top another solid +bed of branches is laid down, and the whole is first covered with +concrete, and then with bricks or tiles, while the edge of the +_digue_, at the top of the seaward slope, is composed of heavy blocks +of stone cemented together and bound by iron rivets. + +_Digues_ made in this solid fashion, all of them higher above the +shore than the Thames Embankment is above the river, and some of +them broader than the Embankment, will, before very many years +have passed, stretch along the whole coast of Flanders without +a break, and will form not only a defence against the tides, but +a huge level promenade, with the dunes on one side and the sea on +the other. This is a gigantic undertaking, but it will be completed +during the lifetime of the present generation. + +[Illustration: LA PANNE. A Flemish Inn--Playing Skittles.] + +Another grandiose idea, which is actually being carried into effect, +is to connect all the seaside resorts on the coast of Flanders by +a great boulevard, 40 yards wide, with a road for carriages and +pedestrians, a track for motor-cars and bicycles, and an electric +railway, all side by side. Large portions of this magnificent roadway, +which is to be known as the 'Route Royale,' have already been completed +between Blankenberghe and Ostend, and from Ostend to Plage de Westende. +From Westende it will be continued to Nieuport-Bains, crossing the +Yser by movable bridges, and thence to La Panne, and so onwards, +winding through the dunes, over the French borders, and perhaps +as far as Paris! + +A single day's journey through the district which this 'Route Royale' +is to traverse will lead the traveller through the most interesting +part of the dunes, and introduce him to most of the favourite _plages_ +on the coast of Flanders, and thus give him an insight into many +characteristic Flemish scenes. La Panne, for instance, and Adinkerque, +in the west and on the confines of France, are villages inhabited +by fishermen who have built their dwellings in sheltered places +amongst the dunes. The low white cottages of La Panne, with the +strings of dried fish hanging on the walls, nestle in the little +valley from which the place takes its name (for _panne_ in Flemish +means 'a hollow'), surrounded by trees and hedges, gay with wild +roses in the summer-time. Each cottage stands in its small plot +of garden ground, and most of the families own fishing-boats of +their own, and farm a holding which supplies them with potatoes +and other vegetables. + +For a long time these cottages were the only houses at La Panne, +which was seldom visited, except by a few artists; but about fifteen +years ago the surveyors and the architects made their appearance, +paths and roads were laid out, and, as if by magic, cottages and +villas and the inevitable _digue de mer_ have sprung up on the +dunes near the sea, and not very far from the original village. The +chief feature of the new La Panne is that the houses are, except +those on the sea-front, built on the natural levels of the ground, +some perched on the tops of the dunes, and others in the hollows +which separate them. The effect is extremely picturesque, and the +example of the builders of La Panne is being followed at other places, +notably at Duinbergen, one of the very latest bathing stations, +which has risen during the last three years about a mile to the +east of Heyst. + +Another very interesting place is the Plage de Westende, the present +terminus of the electric railway from Ostend. The old village of +Westende lies a mile inland on the highway between Nieuport and +Ostend, close to the scene of the Battle of the Dunes. This Plage +is, indeed, a model seaside resort, with a _digue_ which looks down +upon a shore of the finest sand, and from which, of an evening, +one sees the lights of Ostend in the east, and the revolving beacon +at Dunkirk shining far away to the west. The houses which front +the sea, all different from each other, are in singularly good +taste; and behind them are a number of detached cottages and villas, +large and small, in every variety of design. Ten years ago the +site of this little town was a rabbit warren; now everything is +up to date: electric light in every house, perfect drainage, a +good water-supply, tennis courts, and an admirable hotel, where +even the passing stranger feels at home. Though only three-quarters +of an hour from noisy, crowded, bustling Ostend by the railway, it +is one of the quietest and most comfortable places on the coast +of Flanders, and can be reached by travellers from England in a +few hours. + +Some years hence the lovely, peaceful Plage de Westende may have +grown too big, but when the sand has all been turned into gold, +and when the contractors and builders have grown rich, those who +have known Westende in its earlier days will think of it as the +quiet spot about which at one time only a few people used to stroll; +where perhaps the poet Verhaeren found something to inspire him; +where many a long summer's evening was spent in pleasant talk on +history, and painting, and music by a little society of men and +women who spoke French, or German, or English, as the fancy took +them, and laughed, and quoted, and exchanged ideas on every subject +under the sun; where the professor of music once argued, and sprang +up to prove his point by playing--but that is an allusion, or, as +Mr. Kipling would say, 'another story.' + +The district in which Westende lies, with Lombaerdzyde, Nieuport, +Furnes, and Coxyde close together, is the most interesting on the +coast of Flanders. Le Coq, on the other hand, is in that part of +the dune country which has least historical interest, and is chiefly +known as the place where the Royal Golf Club de Belgique has its +course. It is only twenty minutes from Ostend on the Vicinal railway, +which has a special station for golfers near the Club House. There +is no _digue_, and the houses are dotted about in a valley behind +the dunes. This place has a curious resemblance to a Swiss village. + +A few years ago the owners of lands upon the Flemish littoral began +to grasp the fact that there was a sport called golf, on which +Englishmen were in the habit of spending money, and that it would be +an addition to the attractions of Ostend if, beside the racecourse, +there was a golf-course. King Leopold, who is said to contemplate +using all the land between the outskirts of Ostend and Le Coq for +sporting purposes, paid a large sum, very many thousands of francs, +out of his own pocket, and the golf-links at Le Coq were laid out. +The Club House is handsome and commodious, but, unfortunately, the +course itself, which is the main thing, is not very satisfactory, +being far too artificial. The natural 'bunkers' were filled up, +and replaced by ramparts and ditches like those on some inland +courses in England. On the putting greens the natural undulations +of the ground have been levelled, and the greens are all as flat +and smooth as billiard-tables. There are clumps of ornamental wood, +flower-beds, and artificial ponds with goldfish swimming in them. It +is all very pretty, but it is hardly golf. What with the 'Grand Prix +d'Ostende,' the 'Prix des Roses,' the 'Prix des Ombrelles, handicap +libre, reserve aux Dames,' the 'Grand Prix des Dames,' and a number +of other _objets d'art_, which are offered for competition on almost +every day from the beginning of June to the end of September, this +is a perfect paradise for the pot-hunter and his familiar friend +Colonel Bogey. Real golf, the strenuous game, which demands patience +and steady nerves, perhaps, more than any other outdoor game, is +not yet quite understood by many Belgians; but the bag of clubs +is every year becoming more common on the Dover mail-boats. + +Most of these golf-bags find their way to Knocke, where many of +the English colony at Bruges spend the summer, and which, as the +coast of Flanders becomes better known, is visited every year by +increasing numbers of travellers from the other side of the Channel. +Knocke is in itself one of the least attractive places on the Flemish +littoral. The old village, a nondescript collection of houses, lies +on the Vicinal railway about a mile from the sea, which is reached +by a straight roadway, and where there is a _digue_, numerous hotels, +pensions, and villas, all of which are filled to overflowing in the +season. The air, indeed, is perfect, and there are fine views from +the _digue_ and the dunes of the island of Walcheren, Flushing, +and the estuary of the Scheldt; but the place was evidently begun +with no definite plan: the dunes were ruthlessly levelled, and the +result is a few unlovely streets, and a number of detached houses +standing in disorder amidst surroundings from which everything +that was picturesque has long since departed. + +But the dunes to the east are wide, and enclose a large space of +undulating ground; and here the Bruges Golf and Sports Club has +its links, which present a very complete contrast to the Belgian +course at Le Coq. The links at Knocke, if somewhat rough and ready, +are certainly sporting in the highest degree. Some of the holes, +those in what is known as the Green Valley, are rather featureless; +but in the other parts of the course there are numerous natural +hazards, bunkers, and hillocks thick with sand and rushes. It has +no pretentions to be a 'first-class' course (for one thing, it is +too short), but in laying out the eighteen holes the ground has +been utilized to the best advantage, and the Royal and Ancient +game flourishes more at Knocke than at any other place in Belgium. +The owners of the soil and the hotel-keepers, with a keen eye to +business, and knowing that the golfing alone brings the English, +from whom they reap a golden harvest, to Knocke, do all in their +power to encourage the game, and it is quite possible that before +long other links may be established along the coast. The soil of +the strip behind the dunes is not so suitable for golf as the close +turf of St. Andrews, North Berwick, or Prestwick, for in many places +it consists of sand with a slight covering of moss; but with proper +treatment it could probably be improved and hardened. It is merely +a question of money, and money will certainly be forthcoming if +the Government, the communes, and the private owners once see that +this form of amusement will add to the popularity of the littoral. + +A short mile's walk to the west of Knocke brings us to Duinbergen, +one of the newest of the Flemish _plages_, founded in the year +1901 by the Societe Anonyme de Duinbergen, a company in which some +members of the Royal Family are said to hold shares. At Knocke +and others of the older watering-places everything was sacrificed +to the purpose of making money speedily out of every available +square inch of sand, and the first thing done was to destroy the +dunes. But at Duinbergen the good example set by the founders of +La Panne has been followed and improved upon, and nothing could +be more _chic_ than this charming little place, which was planned +by Herr Stuebben, of Cologne, an architect often employed by the +King of the Belgians, whose idea was to create a small garden city +among the dunes. The dunes have been carefully preserved; the roads +and pathways wind round them; most of the villas and cottages have +been erected in places from which a view of the sea can be obtained; +and even the _digue_ has been built in a curve in order to avoid +the straight line, which is apt to give an air of monotony to the +rows of villas, however picturesque they may be in themselves, +which face the sea at other places. So artistic is the appearance +of the houses that the term 'Style Duinbergen' is used by architects +to describe it. Electric lighting, a copious supply of water rising +by gravitation to the highest houses, and a complete system of +drainage, add to the luxuries and comforts of this _plage_, which +is one of the best illustrations of the wonders which have been +wrought among the dunes by that spirit of enterprise which has +done so much for modern Flanders during the last few years. + + + + +COXYDE--THE SCENERY OF THE DUNES + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +COXYDE--THE SCENERY OF THE DUNES + +The whole of the coast-line is within the province of West Flanders, +and its development in recent years is the most striking fact in +the modern history of the part of Belgium with which this volume +deals. The change which has taken place on the littoral during the +last fifteen or twenty years is extraordinary, and the contrast +between the old Flanders and the new, between the Flanders which +lingers in the past and the Flanders which marches with the times, +is brought vividly before us by the difference between such mediaeval +towns as Bruges, Furnes, or Nieuport, and the bright new places +which glitter on the sandy shores of the Flemish coast. But in +almost every corner of the dunes, close to these signs of modern +progress, there is something to remind us of that past history +which is, after all, the great charm of Flanders. + +One of the most characteristic spots in the land of the dunes is +the village of Coxyde, which lies low amongst the sandhills, about +five miles west from Nieuport, out of sight of the sea, but inhabited +by a race of fisherfolk who, curiously enough, pursue their calling +on horseback. Mounted on their little horses, and carrying baskets +and nets fastened to long poles, they go into the sea to catch +small fish and shrimps. It is strange to see them riding about +in the water, sometimes in bands, but more frequently alone or in +pairs; and this curious custom, which has been handed down from +father to son for generations, is peculiar to the part of the coast +which lies between La Panne and the borders of France. + +Near Coxyde, and at the corner where the road from Furnes turns +in the direction of La Panne, is a piece of waste ground which +travellers on the Vicinal railway pass without notice. But here +once stood the famous Abbey of the Dunes. + +[Illustration: COXYDE. A Shrimper on Horseback.] + +In the first years of the twelfth century a pious hermit named +Lyger took up his abode in these solitary regions, built a dwelling +for himself, and settled down to spend his life in doing good works +and in the practice of religion. Soon, as others gathered round +him, his dwelling grew into a monastery, and at last, in the year +1122, the Abbey of the Dunes was founded. It was nearly half a +century before the great building, which is said to have been the +first structure of such a size built of brick in Flanders, was +completed; but when at last the work was done the Abbey was, by all +accounts, one of the most magnificent religious houses in Flanders, +consisting of a group of buildings with no less than 105 windows, +a rich and splendid church, so famous for its ornamental woodwork +that the carvings of the stalls were reproduced in the distant +Abbey of Melrose in Scotland, and a library which, as time went +on, became a storehouse of precious manuscripts and hundreds of +those wonderfully illustrated missals on which the monks of the +Middle Ages spent so many laborious hours. We can imagine them +in the cells of Coxyde copying and copying for hours together, +or bending over the exquisitely coloured drawings which are still +preserved in the museums of Flanders. + +But their most useful work was done on the lands which lay round +the Abbey. There were at Coxyde in the thirteenth century no fewer +than 150 monks and 248 converts engaged at one time in cultivating +the soil.[*] They drained the marshes, and planted seeds where +seeds would grow, until, after years of hard labour on the barren +ground, the Abbey of the Dunes was surrounded by wide fields which +had been reclaimed and turned into a fertile oasis in the midst +of that savage and inhospitable desert. + +[Footnote *: Derode, _Histoire Religieuse de la Flandre Maritime_, +p.86.] + +When St. Bernard was preaching the Crusade in Flanders he came to +Coxyde. On his advice the monks adopted the Order of the Cistercians, +and their first abbot under the new rule afterwards sat in the +chair of St. Bernard himself as Abbot of Clairvaux. Thereafter +the Cistercian Abbey of the Dunes grew in fame, especially under +the rule of St. Idesbaldus, who had come there from Furnes, where +he had been a Canon of the Church of Ste. Walburge. 'It has also a +special interest for English folk. It long held lands in the isle +of Sheppey, as well as the advowson of the church of Eastchurch, +in the same island. These were bestowed on it by Richard the +Lion-Hearted. The legend says that these gifts were made to reward +its sixth abbot, Elias, for the help he gave in releasing Richard +from captivity. Anyhow, Royal charters, and dues from the Archbishop +of Canterbury, and a Bull of Pope Celestine III., confirmed the +Abbey in its English possessions and privileges. The Abbey seems +to have derived little benefit from these, and finally, by decision +of a general congregation of the Cistercian Order, handed them over +to the Abbot and Chapter of Bexley, to recoup the latter for the +cost of entertaining monks of the Order going abroad, or returning +from the Continent, on business of the Order.'[*] + +[Footnote *: Robinson, _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_, p. 176.] + +[Illustration: COXYDE. A Shrimper.] + +The English invasion of the fifteenth century destroyed the work +of the monks in their fields and gardens, but the Abbey itself +was spared; and the great disaster did not come until a century +later, when the image-breakers, who had begun their work amongst the +Gothic arches of Antwerp, spread over West Flanders, and descended +upon Coxyde. The Abbey was attacked, and the monks fled to Bruges, +carrying with them many of their treasures, which are still to +be seen in the collection on the Quai de la Poterie, beyond the +bridge which is called the Pont des Dunes. The noble building, +so long the home of so much piety and learning, and from which so +many generations of apostles had gone forth to toil in the fields +and minister to the poor, was abandoned, and allowed to fall into +ruins, until at last it gradually sunk into complete decay, and was +buried beneath the sands. Not a trace of it now remains. History +has few more piteous sermons to preach on the vanity of all the +works of men. + +The fishermen on the coast of Flanders have, from remote times, +paid their vows in the hour of danger to Notre Dame de Lombaerdzyde. +If they escape from some wild storm they go on a pilgrimage of +thanksgiving. They walk in perfect silence along the road to the +shrine, for not a word must be spoken till they reach it; and these +hardy seafaring men may be seen kneeling at the altar of the old, +weather-beaten church which stands on the south side of the highway +through the village, and in which are wooden models of ships hung +up as votive offerings before an image of the Virgin, which is +the object of peculiar veneration. The Madonna of Lombaerdzyde +did not prevail to keep the sea from invading the village at the +time when the inhabitants were driven to Nieuport, but the belief +in her miraculous power is as strong to-day as it was in the Dark +Ages. + +[Illustration: ADINKERQUE. Village and Canal.] + +There is a view of Lombaerdzyde which no one strolling on the dunes +near Nieuport should fail to see--a perfect picture, as typical +of the scenery in these parts as any landscape chosen by Hobbema +or Ruysdael. A causeway running straight between two lofty dunes +of bare sand, and bordered by stunted trees, forms a long vista at +the end of which Lombaerdzyde appears--a group of red-roofed houses, +with narrow gables and white walls, and in the middle the pointed +spire of the church, beyond which the level plain of Flanders, +dotted with other villages and churches and trees in formal rows, +stretches away into the distance until it merges in the horizon. +Adinkerque, a picturesque village beyond Furnes, is another place +which calls to mind many a picture of the Flemish artists in the +Musee of Antwerp and the Mauritshuis at The Hague; and the recesses +of the dune country in which these places are hidden has a wonderful +fascination about it--the irregular outlines of the dunes, some +high and some low, sinking here into deep hollows of firm sand, +and rising there into strange fantastic shapes, sometimes with +sides like small precipices on which nothing can grow, and sometimes +sloping gently downwards and covered with trembling poplars, spread +in confusion on every side. Often near the shore the sandy barrier +has been broken down by the wind or by the waves, and a long gulley +formed, which cuts deep into the dunes, and through which the sand +drifts inland till it reaches a steep bank clothed with rushes, +against which it heaps itself, and so, rising higher with the storms +of each winter, forms another dune. This process has been going +on for ages. The sands are for ever shifting, but moss begins to +grow in sheltered spots; such wild flowers as can flourish there +bloom and decay; the poplars shed their leaves, and nourish by +imperceptible degrees the fibres of the moss; some hardy grasses +take root; and at length a scanty greensward appears. By such means +slowly, in the microcosm of the dunes, have been evolved out of +the changing sands places fit for men to live in, until now along +the strip which guards the coast of Flanders there are green glades +gay with flowers, and shady dells, and gardens sheltered from the +wind, plots of pasture-land, cottages and churches which seem to +grow out of the landscape, their colouring so harmonizes with the +colouring which surrounds them. And ever, close at hand, the sea is +rolling in and falling on the shore. 'Come unto these yellow sands,' +and when the sun is going down, casting a long bar of burnished +gold across the water, against which, perhaps, the sail of some +boat looms dark for a moment and then passes on, the sky glows +in such a lovely, tender light that those who watch it must needs +linger till the twilight is fading away before they turn their faces +inland. There are few evenings for beauty like a summer evening +on the shores of Flanders. + + + + +INDEX + +Abbey of the Dunes; of Melrose +Adinkerque +'Adoration of the Immaculate Lamb' +Albert, Archduke, portrait at Furnes; at the Battle of the Dunes, + marries the Infanta Isabella; character of; wounded +Albert, Prince, at Bruges +Ancona, Bishop of +Andre, St., village of +Ane Aveugle, Rue de l' +Angelo, Michael +Anglaises, Couvent des Dames +Antwerp, Cathedral of +Arschot, Duc d' +Artevelde, Jacques van +Artevelde, Philip van +Artois, Comte d' +Augustinian Nuns + +Baldwin, Bras-de-Fer, real founder of Bruges; defends Flanders; + marries Judith; builds Church of St. Donatian +Baldwin, King of Jerusalem +Baldwin of Constantinople +Baldwin VII. +Bannockburn +Bardi, money-changers at Bruges +Bassin de Commerce at Bruges +Battle of the Dunes _et seq._ +Battle of the Golden Spurs _et seq._ +Beguinage at Bruges; grove of +Behuchet, Nicholas +Belfry of Bruges +Belgian Parliament passes law for harbour near Heyst +Berlaimont, Comte Florent de +Bernard, St., of Clairvaux +Bertulf, Provost of St. Donatian +Bexley +Bicycles, import duty on 'Bird of Honour' +Blankenberghe, new harbour near; English fleet at, in 1340 +Boniface VIII. +Bouchoute, Hotel de +Borthwick, Colonel +Boterbeke +Bourg, Place du, at Bruges +Brangwyn, William +Breidel, John +Breskens +Bristol, Earl of, at Bruges +Bruges, described by John of Ypres; origin of name; primitive + township of; boundaries in early times; Market-Place; Halles; early + trade; the Loove at; growth of; capital of West Flanders; Baldwin + Bras-de-Fer its real founder; Place du Bourg; murder of Charles the + Good; Joanna of Navarre at; death of Marie, wife of Maximilian; Hotel + de Ville; Customs House; Oriental appearance in Middle Ages; produce + sent to, in Middle Ages; Hanseatic League at; Consulates at; + splendour of, in Middle Ages; under the House of Burgundy; loss of + trade; pauperism; Charles II. at _et seq._; list of Charles II.'s + household at; death of Catherine of Braganza at; fate of Church at + French Revolution; Napoleon at; state of, since Revolution of 1830; + English Jesuits at; Queen Victoria at; relic of Holy Blood at + _et seq._; Procession of the Holy Blood _et seq._; relic of the + Holy Cross +Bruges Matins +Brussels, Charles II. at; Church of Ste. Gudule; Hotel de Ville +Burchard +Burgundy, Charles, Duke of +Burgundy, House of +Burnet, Bishop +Butler, Mr. J. + +Caine, Mr. Hall +'Cairless,' Mr. +Capucins, Chapel of, at Furnes +Casa Negra +Cathedral of Antwerp +Cathedral of St. Martin at Ypres +Cathedral of St. Sauveur at Bruges +Catherine of Braganza +Celestine III. +Chapel of the Capucins at Furnes +Chapelle du Saint-Sang (St. Basil's) at Bruges +Charlemagne +Charles II. of England at Bruges _et seq._ +Charles the Bald +Charles the Bold +Charles the Good +Charles V. +Charles VI. +Chatillon, Jacques de +Chemins-de-fer Vicinaux +Church of Jerusalem at Bruges +Church of Notre Dame at Bruges +Church of St. Donatian at Bruges +Church of Ste. Walburge +Cistercians +Clairvaux +Clauwerts +Clement V. +Clement VII. +Cologne +Comte de la Hanse +Congress of Vienna +Coninck, Peter de +Consulate of France; of Spain; of Smyrna +Coolkerke +Courtrai +Couvent des Dames Anglaises +Coxyde +Cranenberg +Crecy, Battle of +Cromwell +Customs House at Bruges + +Dalgetty, Dugald +Damme _et seq._; population of; Roeles de; harbour blocked up +Dampierre, Guy de +David, Gerard +Deprysenaere, Jean of Ypres +_Digues de mer_, construction of +Donatian, Church of St., built by Baldwin Bras-de-Fer; Bertulf, + Provost of; site of; murder of Charles the Good in; destroyed +Don John of Austria +Dordrecht +Duinbergen +Dunes, Battle of the; scenery of _et seq._ +Dyver, the, at Bruges + +Edward III. +Edward IV. +Egmont, Count +Elias, sixth Abbot of Coxyde +English Merchant Adventurers +Erembalds _et seq._; feud with Straetens; destruction of Ethelbald +Ethelwulf, husband of Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald Evendyck +Eyck, van, elder and younger + +Flanders, state of, in early times; invaded by Normans; origin of title + 'Count of'; defended by Baldwin Bras-de-Fer; allied to England; + neutrality of, in 1340 and 1830; invaded by French; plain of _et seq._; + ignorance of country people in; smuggling between France and; annexed + to France; invaded by English; causes of disunion in; ceded to the + Infanta Isabella; contrast between different parts of; coast of _et seq._ +Flotte, Pierre, Chancellor of France +Flushing +Fox, Sir Stephen +France, Flanders annexed to +France, Palais du +French Consulate at Bruges +Furnes; procession of penitents at; Church of Ste. Walburge; Hotel de + Ville and Palais de Justice; Church of St. Nicholas; Corps de Garde + Espagnol and Pavillon des Officiers Espagnols + +Gand, Porte de +Gardiner, Dr., quoted +Gauthier de Sapignies +Genoese merchants, house of, at Bruges +George III. +Germany, emigrations from Flanders to Ghent +Ghiselhuis +Gilliat-Smith, author of _The Story of Bruges_ +Gloucester, Henry, Duke of _et seq._ +Godshuisen +Golden Fleece, Order of the +Golden Spurs, Battle of the +Golf in Belgium +'Governor of the English Colony beyond the Seas' +Grande Dame of Beguinage +Grande Salle des Echevins at Bruges +Great storm of thirteenth century +Gruthuise +Guildhouse of St. Sebastian at Bruges +Gustavus Adolphus +Guy de Dampierre + +Haecke, Canon van +Halle de Drapiers at Ypres +Halle de Paris at Bruges +Halles at Bruges +Hamilton, Sir James +Hanseatic League +Het Paradijs +Heyst +Hobbema +Hogarth +Holland, Beguinages in +Holy Blood, relic and chapel of, at Bruges; Procession of the +Holy Cross, relic of +Holy Sepulchre, Church of, at Jerusalem +Hoogenblekker +Horn, Count +Hotel de Bouchoute at Bruges +Hotel de Ville at Bruges; at Furnes +House of the Seven Towers +Hyde (Lord Clarendon) + +Idesbaldus, St. +Inquisition in Flanders +Isabella, the Infanta + +Jerusalem, Baldwin, King of +Jerusalem, Church of, at Bruges +Jesse, _Memoirs of the Court of England_ +Jesuits at Bruges +Joanna of Navarre +John of Ypres +Joseph II. +Joseph of Arimathaea +Judith, wife of Baldwin Bras-de-Fer +Justice, Palais du, at Bruges; at Furnes + +Kadzand +Kermesse +King, Thomas Harper +Knights of the Golden Fleece +Knocke + +Lac d'Amour +La Panne +Le Coq +_Legend of Montrose_ +Lejeusne, Mathurin +Leliarts +Leonius +Leopold I. +Leopold II. +Lilly the astrologer +Lincoln, Bishop of +Lombaerdzyde +Longfellow, quoted +Loove, the, at Bruges +Louis of Maele +Louis of Nevers +Louis XIV. +Louvain +Luxembourg +Lyger + +Maele, Louis of +Maison des Orientaux +Mannaert +Marbriers, Quai des +Mariakerke +Maria Theresa +Market-Place of Bruges +Mary, 'The Gentle' +Matins of Bruges +Maurice of Nassau +Mauritshuis at The Hague +Maximilian, Archduke +Mazarin +Melrose Abbey +Memlinc +Meuninxhove, John van +Michael Angelo +Middelkerke +Minnewater +Miracles wrought by the Holy Blood at Bruges +Morgarten +Mother Superior of Beguinage +Murray, Sir Robert + +Napoleon at Bruges; return from Elba; canal to Sluis + constructed by +Navarre, Joanna of +Neutrality of Flanders in 1340 and 1830 +Nevers, Louis of +Nicholas I., Pope +Nicholas, Sir Edward +Nieuport; origin of; besieged by Prince Maurice; fallen state of +Nieuport-Bains +'Nieuwerck,' at Ypres +Nimeguen, Treaty of +Nivelles +Noe, Michael +Normans in Flanders +Norwich, Earl of +Notre Dame, Church of, at Bruges +Notre Dame de Lombaerdzyde +Notre Dame de Thuine + +'Old England' at Bruges +Oosterlingen Plaats +Oostkerke +Orientaux, Maison des; Place des +Ormonde +Osburga +Ostend, growth of +Otlet, M. Paul _note_ +Ouden Burg + +Palais de Justice, at Bruges; at Furnes +Palais du Franc +Paradijs, Het +Parijssche Halle +Paris +Parma, Duke of, in Flanders +Pauperism of Bruges +Philip II. cedes Spanish Netherlands to his daughter +Philip III. +Philip of Valois +Philip the Fair +Place des Orientaux +Place du Bourg +Pont des Dunes +Pope Clement V.; VII.; Boniface VIII.; Celestine III.; Urban VI. +Poperinghe +Porte de Damme +Porte de Gand +Porte Ste. Croix +Procession of the Holy Blood at Bruges _et seq._; of Penitents at Furnes +Pruyssenaere, Peter + +Quai Espagnol; Long; des Marbriers; du Miroir; de la Potterie; du Rosaire; + Spinola; Vert + +Rastadt, Treaty of +Richard I. +Robinson, Mr. Wilfrid, author of _Bruges, an Historical Sketch_ +Rochester, Earl of +Rodenbach +Roeles de Damme +Rome, flight of Baldwin and Judith to +Roosebeke, Battle of +Rosaire, Quai du +Roulers +Route Royale +Roya +Rue Anglaise, in Bruges; de l'Ane Aveugle; des Carmes; Cour de Gand; + Espagnole; Flamande; Haute; Neuve; du Vieux Bourg Ruysdael + +Santhoven +Scarphout +'Schielt ende Vriendt' +Schomberg +Schoutteeten +'Scotland,' at Bruges +Scottish merchants at Bruges +Scott, Sir Walter +See-Brugge +Senlis +Sheppey, Isle of +Sluis +Smith, Gilliat- +Smet de Naeyer, Comte +Smyrna, Consulate of, at Bruges +Spaniards, at Bruges; at Furnes +Spanish Inquisition +Spencer, Henry, Bishop of Norwich +St. Andre, Village of +St. Basil, Church of +St. Bavon +St. Bernard of Clairvaux +St. Donatian, Church of +St. George, Society of +St. Idesbaldus +St. John, Hospital of +St. Martin, Church of, at Furnes +St. Nicholas, Church of, at Furnes +St. Omer, Jesuits of +St. Peter's, at Ghent +St. Sauveur, Church of +St. Sebastian, Society of, at Bruges; at Ypres +Ste. Elizabeth, Church of +Ste. Gudule, Church of +Ste. Monica, Church of +Ste. Walburge, Church of, at Bruges; at Furnes +Straetens +Stuebben, Herr +Swift, Dean +Sybilla, wife of Thierry d'Alsace +Sydenham, Colonel +Syria + +Tarah, Viscount +'Ter Streep' +Thierry d'Alsace _et seq._ +'Thuindag' +Thurloe State papers +Titelman the Inquisitor +Torquemada +Tournai +'Tower of London' at Bruges +Turner, Sir James + +Valois, Philip of +Van Eyck +Vauban, fortifies Ypres +Verhaeren, M., Belgian poet +Vienna, Congress of +Vieux Bourg, Rue du +Virgin and Child, Statue of, at Bruges + +Urban VI. + +Victoria, Queen, at Bruges + +Walburge, Ste., Church of, at Bruges; at Furnes +Walcheren +Waterloo, Battle of +Weavers, Guild of +Wenduyne +Westcapelle +Westende, village; Plage +William, Bishop of Ancona + +York, Duke of, at Bruges _et seq._ +Ypres; field preaching near; churches sacked; taken by Parma; by the + Protestants; Place du Musee; besieged by Louis XIV.; fortified by + Vauban; ceded to France; described by Vauban in 1689; taken by the + French in 1794; during the Hundred Days; end of military history; + Grand Place and Cloth Hall; monopoly of weaving linen; manages with + Bruges the Hanseatic League in Flanders; the Nieuwerck; riots at; + siege of, by English _et seq._; John of Ypres describes early Bruges +Yser + +Zwijn +Zuyder Zee + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRUGES AND WEST FLANDERS*** + + +******* This file should be named 18670.txt or 18670.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/7/18670 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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