looked harassed and fatigued, and
gladly took the seat Count Guy pointed to, close by his own, and
having stirred the logs which burned lazily in the huge hearth, he
observed, "Methinks the wood emits this sulphureous vapour more
strongly than ever. I marvel, Guy, that you have not repaid the
compliment of the English king's invitation to your weavers, by
bringing over workmen to build you some of those long narrow passages
which, beginning just over the fire, project from the top of the house
to carry off the smoke."

"What mean you, Baldwin?"

"Nay, have you not heard that in England they are beginning to build
along the end of the rooms, lodges or troughs to contain the fuel, on
the base of which they raise a brick funnel, through which all the
smoke mounts and so evaporates at the top of the house?" replied
Baldwin.

"Think you then, d'Avesnes, that the whole room can be warmed with the
fire at one end of it, particularly if the smoke be carried out?"

"Indeed they say," replied d'Avesnes, "it casts a strong heat
everywhere."

["The Black Lady" is thus characterised:--"They speak of her as
one entirely destitute of natural sensibility; they hint at some
dark practices, and they designate her so frequently by the
epithet of the 'Black Lady,' that many, both in Hainault and
Flanders, are ignorant that this is not really her title." Here
follows a whole-length portrait of this specimen of black-letter
majesty.]

In the tapestried room into which the brothers were conducted, sat
the Black Lady of Brabant on a throne elevated considerably above
the floor. The dais was covered with the same rich tapestry as the
hangings which covered the walls, for even in this early age Bruges
was celebrated for such manufactures. The draperies of the throne were
of purple velvet fringed with gold, with a canopy and curtains of the
same rich materials, the latter being looped back with a massive cord
and tassels. The constable supported one side of the throne, and
the seneschal the other. Below these were the cup-bearer and grand
huntsman. Six pages were placed about the steps of the throne, and
the same number of ladies in waiting were also there. Yet Marguerite
herself wanted not the surrounding magnificence to mark her superior
dignity of "Countess by the grace of God," then accorded to only one
county besides her own; for there was a sort of fearful majesty about
her towering height, unbowed eithe