e
Ville, facing the square and approached by a flight of a dozen steps.
During the course of the morning it was covered with green boughs and
flowers, a cross was erected on the top while various coloured banners
and the tricolors helped to make a very effective and pretty stage.

Meanwhile around the church square there was great excitement. Girls
of all ages in white, and boys with short white trousers, blue coats
and tam-o-shanters had been going towards the church since early
morning. From our laboratory window we could see these youngsters
being collected into groups and being instructed by nuns. Banners of
various kinds floated in the air and hung from the windows of the
houses round about.

We had settled into our daily work when the sound of children's voices
floated through the laboratory windows, and we looked out to see a
procession coming across the Grande Place, led by an old man carrying
a gilded staff and wearing a cocked hat. Right behind him walked a
priest between two altar boys, all three wearing elaborately worked
tunics of lace; the boys carried poles with lanterns on the top.

Following them came, two and two, the smaller boys of the village.
Then came a band of tiny boys carrying wooden guns over their
shoulders and dressed as Turcos; large groups of bigger boys followed
dressed in white trousers, blue coats and tam-o-shanter hats, and
headed by a bugle band.

These were succeeded by a number of girls dressed entirely in white,
the smaller ones being in front and the larger ones behind. Then came
the really beautiful part of the procession. In this section every
girl was dressed differently, each dress being of some period in the
history of Flanders. As a study in costume alone it was exceedingly
fine.

Some of the dresses were quite beautiful. One had a blue-laced bodice
over white and a red velvet skirt with a high pointed black straw hat;
another had a black bodice with a white under vest and a blue skirt,
the hat being of white lace. Others which I cannot now remember in
exact detail were very interesting and recalled all the historical
tales that I had ever read of ancient Flanders.

Next came a canopy supported by two of the older men but with choir
boys on the four guy ropes. Under it walked the priest who was to be
the master of ceremonies for the day. Then came other girls in white,
depicting various characters in French history, such as Joan of Arc.
The prettiest girl of the vill