ancient Gothic house containing a really priceless collection of medals
and instruments of torture used during the terrible days of the Spanish
Inquisition. I spent long hours in these old musty rooms alone, and I
might have stolen away whatever took my fancy had I been so minded, for
the _custode_ left me quite alone to wander at will, and the cases
containing the seals, parchments, and small objects were all unfastened.

I saw the other day another wonderful panorama photograph taken from an
aeroplane showing Ypres as it now is, a vast heap of ruins, the Cloth
Hall gutted; the Cathedral leveled, and the site of the little old
museum a vast blackened hole in the earth where a shell had landed. The
photograph, taken by an Englishman, was dated September, 1915.

The great Hanseatic League, that extensive system of monopolies, was the
cause of great dissatisfaction and many wars because of jealousy and bad
feeling. Ypres, Ghent, and Bruges, while defending their rights and
privileges against all other towns, fought among themselves. The
monopoly enjoyed by the merchant weavers of Ypres forbade all weaving
for "three leagues around the walls of Ypres, under penalty of
confiscation of the looms and all of the linen thus woven."

Constant friction was thus engendered between the towns of Ypres and
Poperinghe, resulting in bloody battles and the burning and destruction
of much property. Even within the walls of the town this bickering went
on from year to year. When they were not quarreling with their neighbors
over slights or attacks, either actual or fancied, they fought among
themselves over the eternal question of capital _versus_ labor. A sharp
line was drawn between the workingman and the members of the guilds who
sold his output. The artisans, whose industry contributed so greatly to
the prosperity of these towns, resented any infringement of their legal
rights. The merchant magistrates were annually elected, and on one
occasion, in 1361, to be exact, because this was omitted, the people
arose in their might against the governors, who were assembled in the
Nieuwerck of the Hotel de Ville. The Baillie, one Jean Deprysenaere,
haughty in his supposed power, and trusting in his office, as local
representative of the Court of Flanders, appeared before the insurgent
weavers and endeavored to appease them. "They fell upon him and slew
him" (Vereeke). Then, rushing into the council chamber, they seized the
other magistrates