After The Storm | Page 6

making. Bruges has been at
all times renowned for the beauty of the female sex, and this brought to my recollection a
passage in Schiller's tragedy of the Maid of Orleans, wherein the Duke of Burgundy says
that the greatest boast of Bruges is the beauty of its women.
Another treckschuyt was to start at twelve o'clock for Ghent; but we preferred going by
land and General Wilson hired a carriage for that purpose. The distance is about thirty
miles. The road from Bruges to Ghent or Gand is perfectly straight, lined with trees and
paved like a street. The country is quite flat, and though there is nothing to bound the

horizon, the trees on each side of the road intercept the view.
We arrived at Ghent about six in the afternoon of the 4th and had some difficulty in
finding room, as the different hotels were filled with officers of the allied army; but at
length, after many ineffectual applications at several, we obtained admission at the Hotel
de Flandre, where we took possession of a double-bedded room, the only one
unoccupied.
Gand seems to be a very neat, clean and handsome city, with an air of magnificence
about it. The Grande Place is very striking, and the promenades are aligned with trees.
We inspected the exterior of several public buildings and visited the interior of several
churches. In the cathedral we had the honour of seeing at High Mass his most Christian
Majesty, Monsieur and the Comte de Blacas, Vicomte de Chateaubriand and others,
composing the Court of notre Père de Gand, as Louis XVIII is humorously termed by the
French, from his having fixed his head-quarters here. A great many French officers who
have followed his fortunes are also here, but they seem principally to belong to the
Gardes du Corps. A number of military attended the service in the cathedral in order to
witness the devotions of the Bourbon family. Monsieur has all the appearance of a worn
out debauchee, and to see him with a missal in his hand and the strange contrite face he
assumes, is truly ridiculous. These princes, instigated no doubt by the priests, make a
great parade of their sanctity, for which however those who are acquainted with their
character will not give them much credit. But religious cant is the order of the day _intra
et extra Iliacos muros_, abroad as well as in England. The King of France takes the lead,
having in view no doubt the advice of Buckingham to Richard III:
A pray'r book in your hand, my Lord, were well, For on that ground I'll make an holy
descant.
and M. de Chateaubriand will no doubt trumpet forth the devotion and Christian humility
of his master. Those, however, who are at all acquainted with this prince's habits, and are
not interested in palliating or concealing them, insinuate that his devotions at the table are
more sincere than at the altar and that, like the Giant Margutte in the Morgante Maggiore
of Pulci, he places more faith and reliance on a cappone lesso ossia arrosto than on the
consecrated but less substantial wafer.[2]
After contemplating this edifying spectacle, we returned to our inn, and the next morning
after breakfast we set out on our journey to Bruxelles. The road is exactly similar to that
between Bruges and Gand, but the country appears to be richer and more diversified, and
many country houses were observable on the road side. We passed thus several neat
villages. At one o'clock we stopped at Alost to refresh our horses and dine. At the table
d'hôte were a number of French officers belonging to the Gardes du Corps. On entering
into conversation with one of them, I found that he as well as several others of them had
served under Napoleon, and had even been patronised and promoted by him; but I
suppose that being the sons of the ancient noblesse they thought that gratitude to a
parvenu like him was rather too plebeian a virtue. Some of them, however, with whom I
conversed after dinner seemed to regret the step they had taken. "If we are successful,"
said they, "it can only be by means of the Allied Armies, and who knows what conditions

they may impose on France? If we should be unsuccessful, we are exiled probably for life
from our country." During dinner, two pretty looking girls with musical instruments
entered the hall, and regaled our ears with singing some romances, among which were
_Dunois le Troubadour and La Sentinelle_. They sang with much taste and feeling. I
surmise this is not the only profession they exercise, if I might judge from the doux yeux
they occasionally directed to some of the officers. These girls did not at least seem