as beautiful as the one in St.
Gudule, at Brussels. The glory of the church is the "breathing scroll"
of Rubens, so often seen upon the walls of its solemn aisles. Here is
Rubens's great picture,--the Descent from the Cross. To this picture
pilgrimages have been made by all the lovers of art from other lands,
and all concede the grandeur of idea and the simplicity of the style.
There is quite a story about this picture, in which Rubens and the
crossbow-men of Antwerp both figure, but which I have no time to tell
you at present. Nearly opposite is the Elevation of the Cross. The
Savior's face and figure are not to be forgotten by any one who
carefully gazes on this canvas. Both these pictures were carried off by
the French, and also the Assumption of the Virgin, which is the high
altar-piece, and were restored by the allied sovereigns in 1815. This
last-named picture is said to have been executed in sixteen days, and
his pay was one hundred florins a day. I like it exceedingly; and _the_
figure of the picture is more spiritual than any other I have seen of
the Virgin. Its date is 1642. I advise you to read Sir Joshua Reynolds's
Lectures, where you will find a critical description of these immortal
pictures.

The steeple or tower is regarded as unrivalled, and is one of the
highest in the world. It is four hundred and sixty-six feet high; and
from the top we could see Brussels, Ghent, Malines, Louvain, and
Flushing, and the course of the Scheldt lies beautifully marked out. I
hardly dare tell you how many bells there are. Our valet said
ninety-nine; one local book of facts says eighty-eight; but I suppose
there are eighty or ninety; and every fifteen minutes they do chime the
sweetest music: Charles V. wished the exquisite tower could be kept from
harm in a glass case. The tracery of this tower is like delicate
lacework, and no one can imagine half its beauty. After we came down, we
examined, at the base, the epitaph of Quentin Matsys, once a
black-smith, and then, under the force of the tender passion, he became
a painter. The iron work over the pump and well, outside the church, is
his handiwork.

All round the cathedral are the finest old gabled houses I ever saw,
Charley. I never tire in looking at them. They were the great houses of
the time when the Duke of Alva made Antwerp the scene of his cruel
despotism, and when the Inquisition carried death and misery into men's
families. The oppressions of the Spaniards in