Zigzag Journeys in Europe Part 29

The boys entered the city in the morning and pa.s.sed in view of the great market square and its contiguous streets.

"This city," said Frank Gray, "was the scene of the grand military ball before the Battle of Waterloo.

"'There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry, and--'"

"And please don't quote the reading book," said Tommy Toby. "The city is full of _dog-carts_. Dog-carts heaped full of vegetables and women to lead about the dogs! What a comical sight!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: {A DUTCH WINDMILL.}]

"They are probably country people with produce to sell," said Wyllys.

"What curious head-dresses! What odd jackets! The scene does not much remind one of Byron's poetry; but it is poetic, after all!"

"I understood that we came here to study the a.s.sociations of history," said Frank, "and not dog-carts."

"I came to see what I could see," said Tommy, "and not to imagine battles in the air."

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOG-CARTS.]

The unexpected street scenes and the general interest of the Cla.s.s in them so offended Frank that he turned his eyes with a far-away look towards the highest gables, and pa.s.sed on the rest of the way to the Hotel de l'Europe in silence.

The next morning the Cla.s.s left the Place Royale, in a fine English stage-coach, in company with an agent of the English mail coaches, for Waterloo, which is about twelve miles from the city. It was a bright day, and the airy road led through the forest of Soignies,--the "Ardennes" of Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."

"And Ardennes waves about them her green leaves, Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pa.s.s."

The battlefield of Waterloo is an open plain, graced here and there with appropriate monuments, and dignified with an imposing earth mound with the Belgian Lion on its top.

It did not seem that the plain could ever have been the scene of such a contest, so great was its beauty and so quiet its midsummer loveliness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STREET SCENES IN BRUSSELS.]

"Here," said Frank, "the Old Guard of France, who could die but not surrender, gave their blood for the empire."

"Here," said Wyllys, "England won her greatest battle on land--"

"At the cost of twenty thousand men, as I have read," said Tommy.

"Victor Hugo," said Master Lewis, "declares that Waterloo was not a battle: it was a change of front of the nations of the world."

The Cla.s.s stopped at Brussels on their return from the most peaceful plain to take a view of the Hotel de Ville, which is one of the finest town-halls in the country. Its tower is more than three hundred and sixty feet high, and is surmounted with a colossal statue of St.

Michael, which looks very small indeed from the square, but which is really seventeen feet high. The figure turns in the wind, and is the weather vane of the city.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOTEL DE VILLE, BRUSSELS.]

"I wish you to visit Aix-la-Chapelle," said Master Lewis. "The places you have seen in England and expect to see in Normandy will, I hope, leave in your mind a clear view of English history, when you shall a.s.sociate them under my direction, as I purpose to have you do. To have a view of French history you will need to learn something of the old empire of Charlemagne, of which this city was the princ.i.p.al capital on this side of the Alps. Here the great king of the Franks, Roman Emperor, and virtual ruler of the world was born, had his favorite residence, and here he was buried. Here, in 1165, his tomb was opened, and his body was found seated upon a throne, crowned, the sceptre in his hand, the Gospel on his knee, and all of the insignia of imperial state about him."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLEMAGNE IN COUNCIL.]

Through districts of pasture lands, by cliffs that looked like castles, over clear streams and past populous villages our tourists made their way to the old city of the emperor of the West. It is situated in a valley, surrounded by heights. Its town hall was built on the ruins of the palace of Charlemagne.

The grand old cathedral has sixteen sides. In the middle of the interior, a stone with the inscription CAROLO MAGNO marks the grave of Charlemagne.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLEMAGNE AT THE HEAD OF HIS ARMY.]

"Charlemagne, like Alfred of England," said Master Lewis, "was a patron of learning; and he inst.i.tuted in his own palace a school for his sons and servants. But he was a war-making king. He conducted in all fifty-three expeditions in Germany, Gaul, Italy, and Greece, and made himself the ruler of the greater part of Northern and Eastern Europe. He went to Rome in 800 A.D. and received a most gracious reception from the Pope, as in all his contests he had been a faithful servant of the Church.

"On Christmas day, 800 A.D. he went into St. Peter's to attend ma.s.s.

He took his place before the altar, and, as he bowed his head to pray, the Pope placed the crown of the Roman Empire upon it, and all the people shouted, 'Long live Charles Augustus, crowned of G.o.d, the great Emperor of the Romans!'

"And so the king of the Franks became the emperor of the world."

The relics which the cathedral exhibits from time to time at great public festivals are remarkable as ill.u.s.trations of the influence of superst.i.tion. Among the so-called _Grandes Reliques_ are the robe worn by the Virgin at the Nativity and the swaddling clothes in which the infant Saviour was wrapped. It would be almost irreverent to excite ridicule by giving a list of the articles a.s.sociated with the crucifixion of Christ. Among the _Pet.i.tes Reliques_ are pieces of Aaron's rod that budded. Upon these pretended relics the German emperors used to take the State oath at their coronations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOTEL DE VILLE, GHENT.]

The Cla.s.s next visited the coronation room in the Hotel de Ville, a hall one hundred and sixty feet long, where a series of impressive frescoes presents a view of the life of Charlemagne. In this hall thirty-five German emperors and fourteen empresses had been crowned.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VAN ARTEVELDE AT HIS DOOR.]

The Cla.s.s returned to Brussels, and thence made easy journeys through a fertile and thickly settled country, towards Normandy.

Ghent, a grand old city of the commerce kings of Flanders, with its quaint town-hall and its two hundred and seventy bridges, next met the eager eyes of our tourists, who stopped here briefly on their way to Bruges.

"I never hear the name of Ghent p.r.o.nounced," said Master Lewis, "without recalling the scene which history pictures of James van Artevelde standing in the door of his house, when the burghers, tired of the rule of kings and n.o.bles, came to him for counsel, and asked him to become their leader. It was really the burghers' declaration of independence, and the making one of their number,--for James van Artevelde was a brewer,--president of the rich old city. This was on the 26th of December, 1337. It was a bold stroke for liberty in the days of tyranny, and the memory of it will ever live."

"I know but little of the history of Bruges," said Wyllys Wynn to Master Lewis, during the ride to that city. "I have heard, of course, of its belfry, and I also remember what Tommy said about it in his story of Philip the Good and the Tinker. What makes the city so famous?"

"It was once," said Master Lewis, "the greatest commercial port in the world; a hundred and fifty foreign vessels would sometimes enter its basins in a single day. Its inhabitants became very rich, and its grandees lived like princes. A French queen who visited it in its high prosperity is said to have exclaimed, 'I thought myself the only queen here, but I see a thousand about me!' Twenty ministers from foreign courts had residences within its walls. It excelled all places in the manufacture of wool; and in recognition of this fact Philip the Good inst.i.tuted there the Order of the Golden Fleece.

"There is an historic character whose name is a.s.sociated with Bruges in a very different way from Philip the Good,--a famous son of Philip, who was called

CHARLES THE RASH.

"His surname is a picture of his character, and it seems strange that so good a duke as Philip should have had so bad a son. To wage war, harry and burn, to be engaged always in some work of destruction, was the pa.s.sion of his life. He devastated Normandy, destroying more than two hundred castles and towns. He filled the land with smoke, and colored the rivers with blood.

"He succeeded to the ducal crown of Burgundy in 1467. Being the richest prince of the times, he immediately began to make preparations for war on a gigantic scale, which should add all the neighboring territories and provinces to Burgundy. He desired to extend his personal power at any expense of blood and treasure, and he mapped out plans of conquest and dreamed dazzling dreams.

"While he was getting ready for war, Louis XI. of France invited him to a conference: he hesitated, and Louis, through his partisans, incited the citizens of Liege to revolt against him. Charles then consented to the conference, but as soon as Louis arrived, he treacherously seized him and made him his prisoner. He forced him to swear a treaty on a box which was believed to contain pieces of the true cross, and which had belonged to Charlemagne. He then compelled him to go with him to Liege, and apparently to sanction the punishment of the people for the very revolt he had incited them to make.

"He conquered Lorraine, and planned to subdue Switzerland and add it to Burgundy. He entered Switzerland, captured Grandson, and hanged and drowned the garrison. The Swiss rose unitedly against such a merciless foe, and utterly defeated him. But he raised another army and again entered Switzerland, full of visions of conquest. He was again defeated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARLES THE RASH DISCOVERED.]

"He came back to Burgundy, morose and gloomy. His nails and beard grew long; he looked like a wild man; the people recoiled from him, and his dark character seemed to throw a shadow around him wherever he appeared.

"Lorraine, which he had conquered, rose against him. This roused him again to action: he hired soldiers, and led the way to war. He met the rebellious Lorrainers in the plain of Nancy. Here the rash duke made his last fight. It was a snowy day, and the battle was a short one,--the soldiers of Charles flying quickly before the enemy.

"When the duke was preparing himself for the battle, the gilt lion which formed the crest of his helmet fell off.