ce surrounded Liege and its people.

The famous "Legend of the Liegeois" recounts how a working blacksmith
found an inexhaustible supply of coals for his forge through the aid of
a gnomish old man.

[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW _of LIEGE_]

Previously the smith's fires had burned low, and only the old man's song
inspired him to forage on the hillside, with the result that the future
prosperity of the city grew up from the accessibility of this
inexhaustible coal supply.

The old man's story ran thus:

"Wine's good in wintry weather.
Up the hillside near the heather,
Go and gather the black earth,
It shall give your fire birth.
Ill fares the hide when the buckler wants mending,
Ill fares the plough when the coulter wants tending."

When Liege, through its prosperity, had grown to good proportions, its
government was assigned to a sort of prelate-proprietor.

These princely prelates were often but lads of eighteen or twenty, who
became identified with the Church, frequently enough, simply because of
the power it gave them.

The craftsmen and artisans of the city bought many rights from time to
time from the bishops, and finally wrested the power from out of the
hands of the Church, much as did the burghers of other cities from
their feudal lords.

Then followed the struggle, which in Flanders raged perhaps more
bitterly than elsewhere in Europe; the rising, where the many fought
against the privileged few, and much riot and bloodshed was caused on
all sides.

Then came first the burgher heroes of Liege, who, like their confreres
in Ghent and Bruges, found in many instances the martyrdom of the
patriot.

In the Place St. Lambert formerly stood--until 1801, when it was removed
after having been damaged by a mob--the former cathedral of St. Lambert,
which took its name from the first bishop of Liege. This ancient
cathedral was of much grandeur and magnificence, attributes which the
present cathedral of St. Paul decidedly lacks.

It was in this venerable cathedral of St. Lambert that Quentin Durward
went to hear mass, as we learn from Scott's novel, and here also, after
the famous siege of Liege by Louis XI. and Charles the Bold, the two
princes themselves repaired for the same purpose. St. Lambert of Liege
and the three Kings of Cologne were, it would appear, the chief patrons
to whom Quentin and his early followers made their vows.

The bishopric was founded by Heraclius in