The Eve of All-Hallows Volume Ii Part 10

"Good-morrow too, sweet and most lovely Lady Adelaide; permit, fairest lady, your lowly servant a _beso las manos_!"

Here the d.u.c.h.ess thought it decorous to withdraw, and her Grace retired to her cabinet.

"Hail, fairest gem of Erin, bright star of Belgium, and the brilliant sun of Brussels! at sight of thee every eye is enamoured, and every heart takes fire; in witness whereof behold me your lowly servant abroad at this most unfas.h.i.+onable hour, thus prevailing upon myself to come forth and throw my person and my fortunes at your feet, even before that Phoebus hath mounted his meridian car, and the world has become well warmed, to place myself and coronet thus lowly at your feet!"

"Oh rise, my Lord, from that----what, kneel to a mere mortal! I pray you be seated, and I shall endeavour to reply to all the compliments with which your Lords.h.i.+p is so prodigally pleased to overpower me. I must, my Lord, acknowledge, that your Lords.h.i.+p indulges somewhat too freely in mixed metaphor; and I must needs add, you deal somewhat too superabundantly in rhapsodies.--Well, my Lord, let us see what I am like unto? 'A gem of Erin!' pray what is that? Oh, no doubt whatever but it must mean a simple piece of Kerry crystal!--oh, vastly pretty indeed; and almost as nearly transparent as your Lords.h.i.+p's flattery. Well, good, my Lord! what comparison comes next?--Oh, I am 'a Star!' in this I cannot confess that your Lords.h.i.+p's wit s.h.i.+nes superlatively.--Pshaw, my Lord, a star is merely a minor light, and visible only at night! Nay now, after all, this simile is only but just so, so. However, I am amply repaid by that which so brilliantly succeeds, 'the Sun of Brussels!'

Well, come, that I must needs admit is a resplendent metaphor; but the sun of Brussels I must fain likewise confess I have found too often to my cost, to be a very warm and burning sun. What comes next?--Oh, quite portentous!--I blaze, burn, and destroy, setting eyes in a flame, and hearts on fire, and so forth, in a most formidable comet-like fas.h.i.+on!

What this can actually mean, unless it prove a sort of periphrasis, and be slyly intended for a Salamander, I cannot indeed divine. Then if my conjectures prove correct, only think, O glorious Apollo, after the complete extinction of all the tropes, figures, flowers, and poesies, culled from amid the verdant valleys of thine own lofty Parna.s.sus, for thy votary-like Icarus to tumble from the Olympian sky, and to suffer his divine G.o.ddess, the object of his idolatrous veneration, to degenerate into a fire-loving earthly Salamander! Oh, by prose and verse, but this is vastly funny!"

"Ah, cruel, cruel, remorseless Lady Adelaide, is it thus you sportively jest at my pains, and mock my misery!--I die for you!"

"Really, my Lord, this is all so very sudden--the symptoms too so very alarming, I feel quite agitated--dejected! Pray, let me advise you, my Lord, to call in the advice of Sir Patricius Placebo, whose skill is undisputed!"

"No, fair torturer! you, Lady, and you alone, who caused the malady, can cure it!"

"My Lord, seek out one more deserving of the honour which you so n.o.bly proffer me, but I never can be yours; nor shall I ever give my hand unless I also can give my heart. And now, my Lord, farewell, accept my humble grat.i.tude and sincerest thanks for the high distinction which you have so graciously paid me, and which I shall ever remember with the utmost respect and grat.i.tude."

Having so said, Lady Adelaide deeply courtesied, and withdrew.

"Odds my life now," exclaimed the disappointed peer, "but this is most pa.s.sing strange, supersingular, and not to be matched! What, refuse the heir apparent of an earldom, (and with modesty let me express it,) with my person and qualifications! Insufferable! It is not to be endured!"

As Lord Eyrecourt, much discomfitted, departed from the _Rue Ducale_, he met the Duke d'Aremberg going in that direction; they saluted as they pa.s.sed, while he continued his sorrowful soliloquy:--

"The Lady Adelaide is downright mad to refuse me; but it seems she soars at higher game, and looks to 'the pride of place.' She said she would never give her hand without bestowing her heart, doubtless then this honour she has already conferred upon the youthful d'Aremberg.--It is but too fatally evident! Oh, woe is me to come out in the cold air of the morn, before the world had become well warmed; and finally thus to be so totally eclipsed! Oh, some ominous morning I shall be found hanging from the top of Saint Michael's Tower, or my unfortunate corpse be seen floating in the Antwerp ca.n.a.l!

Ne'er gallant peer more miserable was undone, Like extinguish'd star I set 'fore the rise of sun!"

CHAPTER VIII.

Aligera BRUXELLA volans super aethera fama, In laudes solui non pet.i.t ora novas.

Cerne urbis faciem; cultasque Heroibus aulas: Non est invidiam dignior ulla pati.

Cerne hortos, fontesque, et priscis aemula Tempe: Elysium Credas te peragrare nemus.

JACOBUS EYCKIUS.

LETTER II.

THE d.u.c.h.eSS OF TYRCONNEL TO MRS. CARTWRIGHT.

_Dated_, Brussels, _September_, 169--

MY DEAR MADAM,

"Oh, give me joy!

for yesterday my beloved husband, to our unexpected happiness, returned to my arms! Oh, how it delights me he has returned; and has received permission from the higher powers to remain at Brussels. My Adelaide is wild with joy, and so am I.

"Yes, the duke has returned, and I behold every object with redoubled interest--with renewed delight; all seems to me to be newly created. The climate is more charming, the air is more sweetly perfumed with aromatic gales, the melody of the birds is more harmonious; every sky which I see is a Breughel sky. And _now_ I behold daily ill.u.s.trations of the old masters, which I did not observe before, in the scenery which surrounds me, the various buildings, manners, customs, and costume, and all so faithfully portrayed to the life, in the performances of Berghem, Breughel, Rubens, and Teniers.

"Sweeter too, to me, at eve, is the song of the nightingale: our house fronts the park, which is the favourite retreat of this sweetest of warblers; and night after night, long after Saint Gudule hath tolled the midnight hour, have I sat stationed at my latticed cas.e.m.e.nt, the breeze of heaven blowing on my brow, and the cold moon-beam gleaming on my cheek, while I listened with mute delight to the melancholy songster of the night. And often while the bitter tear fast trickled down my cheek, methought--I acknowledge my weakness--methought that I had listened to some poor widowed bird who mourned her absent mate, singing, as the old proverb runs, with a thorn wounding her breast! But oh, _now_ I think quite differently; for _now_ it is quite clear to me that the warbling of the nightingale is more musical than melancholy; for surely, after all, it sweetly trills the notes of love, and not the strains of sorrow!

"You are pleased, my dear Mrs. Cartwright, to express so much satisfaction, in verity, more than its deserts, of my poor account of Lille; and at the same time expressing your desire that I should write to you from this truly delightful city, and give you a true and distinct account of Brussels, that I am flattered, and even tempted to take you at your word, and I shall do my best, to the fullest to gratify your wishes.

"And now, my dear friend, _pour commencer avec le commencement_, as they say in France, and why not in Belgium? The appellation of PAYS-BAS, or the Low Country, is given to the seventeen provinces of Belgium, from the circ.u.mstance that in many places the ground is lower than the level of the sea. The sovereign princes of this realm were at first styled Foresters of Flanders, afterwards they were designated Counts, and then Dukes of Brabant. If you should wish to learn the portrait of a Forester of Flanders, here it is:--Behold him arrayed in ducal bonnet and hunting gear, armed with sabre, dirk, and hunting spear, at the same time accompanied and surrounded by all the _accessoires_ of the chase; his hawk, or falcon, resting upon his hand, and his greyhounds and spaniels following at his heels; meanwhile attended by his jager and his jongeling.[35] Thus accompanied and equipped for the chase, sallied forth the manly Prince Forester of Flanders in the olden time.

[35] Jager and jongeling, _i. e._ huntsman and page of honour.

"The etymon of Brussels is uncertain; however it is not for me to hazard an opinion upon the subject, which I freely leave to the more solemn adjudication of learned linguists, pertinent philologists, and sapient scholiasts. I shall merely observe, that some pretend that it is derived from a neighbouring marsh, which is called Brocksel; while others more strenuously contend that the name springs from the word _Broussailes_, (Brambles,) because the town, say they, had been built upon a spot which had formerly been covered with brambles. The foundation of Brussels is counted from the year, _anno salutis_, 900. But it did not rank as a city until 1040.

"The city of Brussels, says Guicciardini, the celebrated historian of Italy and of Belgium, (or the _Pays-Bas_,) resembles in its conformation, or outline, the form of the human heart, and the similitude certainly is striking and correct.

"Putea.n.u.s, the historian, observes, that every thing is _septenary_ at Brussels; which made many to consider the number _seven_ as completely of cabalistic import in this fair and renowned city.

"The circ.u.mference of Brussels is _seven_ miles in extent.

Anciently _seven_ different n.o.ble families held their several castles within the city, from whom sprung the _seven_ Patrician families, from whose numbers the magistrates were annually chosen.

"This city, under the reign of Charles V., boasted at one time of having _seven_ sovereigns residing within its walls; namely, the Emperor Charles V.; his son Philip, then king of Naples; Maximilian, king of Bohemia, and his consort, the queen of Hungary, who was regent of the _Pays-Bas_; the king of Tunis, in Africa, named Muley Ha.s.san; the Duke of Savoy; the king of Cyprus; and the d.u.c.h.ess of Lorraine, who was queen of Jerusalem.

"There are _seven_ large squares:--1. The great market. 2. Le grande sablon. 3. The fish market. 4. The corn market. 5. The wood market. 6. Le Place Louvaine. 7. The beef market.

"There are _seven_ fountains which ornament this city.[36]

[36] Twenty-one fountains decorate this fine city at the present period, 1821.

"The gates of the city are _seven_ in number:--1. The porte of Louvaine. 2. Of Namur. 3. Of Halle. 4. Of Anderlecht. 5. Of Flanders. 6. Of Lacken. 7. Of Cologne.[37]

[37] The gate of Cologne is at the present day called _Porte de Scarebeeck_. Napoleon Buonaparte, during his occupation of Brussels, added another gate, which he called _Porte de Napoleon_.

"The princ.i.p.al churches of the city are likewise _seven_ in number:--1. Saint Gudule. 2. Our Lady of the Chapel. 3. Saint Gery. 4. Saint Nicholas. 5. Saint Catherine. 6. Saint James of Caudenberg, (this is the chapel of the court.) 7. Our Lady _de finis Terrae_.

"Brussels, so justly celebrated, is a large, populous, and magnificent city, of considerable extent and beauty; adorned with magnificent squares, sumptuous palaces, public buildings, public walks, public fountains, and venerable gothic structures. It is partly built on the winding banks of the river Senne, and partly upon a hill, which commands an extended view of the rich valleys which surround it, producing fruits and vegetables of the best and most luxuriant kind; indeed tillage in no country whatever is better understood and practised than it is in the _Pays Bas_. This city had been the capital of the Spanish, it has now, since change of masters, become the capital of the Austrian Netherlands.

"Brussels once afforded an asylum to Charles II. of England, brother to our gentle, but unfortunate, James II. It was here that the emperor Charles V. resigned his dominions to his son Philip in 1535; and the chair upon which he sat during the performance of the abdication, is religiously preserved in the cathedral of Sainte Gudule. And here too Christiana, Queen of Sweden, voluntarily abdicated her crown in 1654.

"The lower part of the city is crowned with that n.o.ble pile of florid gothic architecture, called _La Maison de Ville_, or town-hall of Brussels, which is situated in the grand market-place; its n.o.ble steeple, from its great elevation, is a most conspicuous object in, every direction, and is seen at a great distance; it rises to the height of three hundred and sixty-four feet, and is surmounted by a colossal bronze statue, (which is gilt,) and seventeen feet high, of Saint Michael the Archangel, to which I fear I must somewhat profanely add the _soubriquet_ of 'weatherc.o.c.k,' or vane; for to such vile use have they turned the saint, and this too, credit me, in a Catholic country! This is wondrous strange. Saint Michael is represented brandis.h.i.+ng his sword to the winds of heaven; and from this dizzy and elevated height the reeling saint wheels to and fro as the wind doth blow. But be it known to you, that Michael the Archangel is the patron saint of the city. This fine structure, although irregularly built, (for the steeple is not in the centre of the building,) is nevertheless a n.o.ble specimen of gothic-florid architecture. The building _La Maison de Ville_ occupied a s.p.a.ce of forty years before its completion. One hundred niches are occupied by statues[38] of saints. The rooms in the interior, where the estates of Brabant a.s.semble, abound and are adorned with beautiful specimens of the ancient Gobelin tapestry; they are princ.i.p.ally historical, three are after Janssens, the history of Clovis; the inauguration of Philip the Good; and the abdication of Charles V. in favour of his son Philip.

[38] These statues were destroyed in 1793.

"Opposite to the town-hall of Brussels stands a remarkable structure, called _La Maison du Roi_, built by order of the Archduke Albert and his d.u.c.h.ess Isabella; her Highness conceiving that '_Notre Dame de Wavre_' had not only most graciously delivered the good and royal city of Brussels from the plague, but also had most humanely vouchsafed the blessings of peace, erected in front of this mansion an image of the Virgin, and placed underneath an inscription, which is as follows, and the good prelate will translate it for you:--

'A Peste, Fame, et Bello, libera nos Maria Pacis; hic votum pacis publicae, Isabella consecravit.'[39]

[39] The statue of the Virgin hath long since evanished, but the inscription remains to the present day.

"The collegiate church, or cathedral, of Sainte Gudule,[40] is a venerable and interesting pile, presenting a fine specimen of gothic architecture. It was built about the year 1047, by Lambert, surnamed Balderic, Duke of Brabant.