astonishing richness of character, and ornamented
with _chefs-d'oeuvres_ of iron-work, marking the dates of erection,
all of them prior to 1616. In this square not a soul appeared, nor was
there a sound to be heard save the cooing of some doves upon a rooftree,
although I sat there upon a stone coping for the better part of a half
hour. Then all at once, out of a green doorway next the _conciergerie_,
poured a throng of children, whose shrill cries and laughter brought me
back to the present. One wonders where now are these merry
light-hearted little ones, who thronged that gray grass-grown square
behind the old Cloth Hall in 1912....

In this old square I studied the truly magnificent south portal and
transept of St. Martin's, the triple portal with its splendid polygonal
rose window, and its two graceful slender side towers, connecting a long
gallery between the two smaller side portals. One's impression of this
great edifice is that of a sense of noble proportions, rather than
ornateness, and this is to be considered remarkable when one remembers
the different epochs of its construction. That the choir was commenced
in 1221 is established by the epitaph of Hugues, _prevot_ of St.
Martin's, whose ashes reposed in the church which he built: that the
first stone of the nave transepts was laid with ceremony by Marguerite
of Constantinople in 1254; that the south portal was of the fifteenth
century and that a century later the chapel called the _doyen_ toward
the south wall at the foot of the tower, was erected. The tower itself,
visible from all parts of the town, was the conception of Martin
Untenhoven of Malines, and replaced a more primitive one in 1433. Of
very severe character, its great bare bulk rose to an unfinished height
of some hundred and seventy feet, and terminated in a squatty sort of
pent-house roof of typical Flemish character. It was flanked by four
smaller, unfinished towers, one at each corner. This tower, one may
recall, figures in many of the pictures of Jean van Eyck. It is not
without reason that Schayes, in his "Histoire de l'Architecture en
Belgique," speaks of the choir of St. Martin's as "one of the most
remarkable of the religious constructions of the epoch in Belgium." Of
most noble lines and proportion if it were not for the intruding altar
screen in the Jesuit style, which mars the effect, the ensemble were
well-nigh perfect.

Its decoration, too, was remarkable. A fresco at the left of