n to the world at
pleasure, marry, and come back in their widowhood. They act as Sisters
of Charity in the city, and some of them are wealthy; but all wear the
garb of the order. There are about six hundred of them in this colony.
On the door of each house is the name of the patron saint of the
occupant.

The drive was continued through some of the principal streets of Ghent;
and, within a few moments of the appointed time, the students were again
seated in the railway carriages. The road to Bruges extends along the
side of the canal from Ostend to Ghent, which has high banks, lined
nearly all the way with tall trees. The view from the windows of the
train was interesting rather than picturesque. In an hour the train
stopped at its destination; but it was after six o'clock, and there was
no time for Professor Mapps to make any long speeches, though Bruges
had a history hardly less exciting than that of Ghent. It takes its name
from the great number of _bridges_ which it contains; for the place,
like Ghent, is cut up by canals.

Bruges was once a rich and powerful city, reputed to contain two hundred
thousand inhabitants; but, like nearly all the Flemish cities, it has
declined from its former grandeur, and now contains only fifty-one
thousand, nearly a third of whom are paupers. In the fifteenth century,
the Dukes of Burgundy held their court here; it had an immense foreign
commerce, and its warehouses were filled with the silks and woollens
manufactured in the vicinity. All this has passed away, the town has the
aspect of a ruined place, and its lofty and elegant public
buildings--the remains of former prosperity--seem to mock its present
desolation.

Fine houses may be hired in Bruges at a rent of from sixty to a hundred
dollars a year. It is said that a house has not been built in the city
for a century, for the reason that its diminishing inhabitants were more
than supplied by those which had once accommodated four times its
present population. The place is dead and dull. The streets are nearly
empty. A man-servant finds himself upon a hundred dollars a year, and a
French teacher charges twenty cents an hour for his services.

The Church of Notre Dame contains the tombs of Charles the Bold and of
his daughter Mary. La Chapelle du Saint Sang takes its name from several
drops of the blood of the Savior, which are said to have been brought
from the Holy Land. They were presented to the town, and are kept in a
rich