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Show vmm By WILLIAM DE MORGAN A VISIT T0 LOUVAIN FIFTY years ago ! And I who write this had never been out of England, though I was a quarter of a century old ! I decided to go, on an impulse. In those days the Baron Osy went from London Bridge to Antwerp. Antwerp was on the Continent and would do -so I went on board the Baron Osy. I remember lying on deck all night looking up at the sky. For it was meteor night in August, and phenomena were doing themselves credit, astronomically. I fell asleep and woke in the dawn, to find the banks of the Scheldt sliding past us, and the river outstripping the banks. Then, Antwerp. I went to an inn on the quay. The keeper thereof was an Englishman who had invented a saxhorn. He had a low opinion of the Continent, but gave me very good boiled beef. Next day I proceeded to sample Flanders. I can't say which town I tasted first. But I remember being in Bruges, Ghent, Oudenarde, Malines,Louvain, and Ypres. I have now the most vivid remembrance of Bruges, Oudenarde, and Louvain. Especially the last. For the hotel where I stayed was close by the old Town Hall, and the carillon sounded the hours and quarters all through the night. Every hour it played through Voz'ci le sabre, 1e sabre, [e sabre, Voz'cz‘ [e sabre, le sabre de man [)ére, and, at each quarter, took an instalment ; at the rate of a sabre for the first quarter, two for the half-hour, and the whole line for the three-quarters. The night was hot, and I could not stand the windows shut-so I got very little sleep. Next day I schemed causerie, based on this, with my delightful hostess below. It was an opportunity to practise my French. " Je ne poovay par dormir parceque du song des cloches. Ils songt assez pour éveiller les morts." " Plait-i1 P Dites-le-moi encore une fois. Ze bell week you up P Ees that ride P " I felt my forces demoralised, and merely answered: " We ! " Marie-she was Marie-turned to a clean old fossil, like a Van Eyck portrait, and said : " Eh-grand'mere, e'coutez-ca! M'sieu n'a pas pu dormir. Il entend toujours les cloches du carillon." T0 which the old lady, after hearing it a second time, louder, said : " Eh, mon Dieu ! " I adventured yet a little more into French speech, saying : " 11 me prendrait beaucoup de temps a m'accoutumer . . . " and stuck. But Marie helped me out, saying: " A vous y accoutumer? Oui vraiment! Mais ici on entend la carillon des sa naissanceéjusqu'a la mort. Je suis née dans la maison, moi; grand'mere aussi. S'il n'y avait plus carillon, il n'y aurait 113 M0 |