he
days of tyranny, and the memory of it will ever live."

"I know but little of the history of Bruges," said Wyllys Wynn to
Master Lewis, during the ride to that city. "I have heard, of course,
of its belfry, and I also remember what Tommy said about it in his
story of Philip the Good and the Tinker. What makes the city so
famous?"

"It was once," said Master Lewis, "the greatest commercial port in the
world; a hundred and fifty foreign vessels would sometimes enter its
basins in a single day. Its inhabitants became very rich, and its
grandees lived like princes. A French queen who visited it in its high
prosperity is said to have exclaimed, 'I thought myself the only queen
here, but I see a thousand about me!' Twenty ministers from foreign
courts had residences within its walls. It excelled all places in the
manufacture of wool; and in recognition of this fact Philip the Good
instituted there the Order of the Golden Fleece.

"There is an historic character whose name is associated with Bruges
in a very different way from Philip the Good,--a famous son of Philip,
who was called

CHARLES THE RASH.

"His surname is a picture of his character, and it seems strange that
so good a duke as Philip should have had so bad a son. To wage war,
harry and burn, to be engaged always in some work of destruction, was
the passion of his life. He devastated Normandy, destroying more than
two hundred castles and towns. He filled the land with smoke, and
colored the rivers with blood.

"He succeeded to the ducal crown of Burgundy in 1467. Being the
richest prince of the times, he immediately began to make preparations
for war on a gigantic scale, which should add all the neighboring
territories and provinces to Burgundy. He desired to extend his
personal power at any expense of blood and treasure, and he mapped out
plans of conquest and dreamed dazzling dreams.

"While he was getting ready for war, Louis XI. of France invited him
to a conference: he hesitated, and Louis, through his partisans,
incited the citizens of Liege to revolt against him. Charles then
consented to the conference, but as soon as Louis arrived, he
treacherously seized him and made him his prisoner. He forced him to
swear a treaty on a box which was believed to contain pieces of the
true cross, and which had belonged to Charlemagne. He then compelled
him to go with him to Liege, and apparently to sanction the punishment
of the people for the very revolt he