The windows which are of dimensions proportioned to the huge scale of the church are all of rich stained glass, partly antique and partly of modern execution, but of great brilliancy of tint and high talent in design. The high altar is so composed by some ingenious machinery within, that the sacred wafer descends apparently of itself, at the moment when the host is about to be elevated by the officiating priest. Around the choir are the monuments of some of the ancient Dukes of Brabant, surmounted by their effigies in armour, with swords and helmets disposed by their side; that of John II, who married Margaret of England, and died in 1318, bears a figure of the Belgic lion in gilded bronze, which weighs nearly three tons. Opposite this is another to the memory of the Archduke Ernest of Austria, on which rests a figure clad in mail. Close by it a marble slab in the floor covers the vault in which are interred some members of the imperial family who died during their vice-royalty at Brussels. One statue in St. Gudule is remarkable as a favourable specimen of modern art in Belgium, it is that of the Count Frederick de Merode, a young nobleman of most amiable personal character, whose father was of one of the ancient families of Brabant, and his mother a Grammont. On the outburst of the revolution in 1830, he returned from France, where he was residing, enrolled himself as a volunteer in a corps of sharpshooters raised by the Marquis de Chasteler, and was killed whilst leading a charge against the Dutch rear-guard, under the command of Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar. This monument is by Geefs of Brussels, who has evinced equal judgment and ability in retaining the national blouse as the costume of his statue, and yet so disposing it as to render it perfectly classical by his arrangement. Geefs is by far the most distinguished artist, as a sculptor, in Belgium, and has recently erected a spirited statue of General Belliard in the Park overlooking the Rue Royale, and the grand monument over the remains of the revolutionary partisans, who fell in the three glorious days “of 1830,” and are interred in the centre of the _Place des Martyrs_. The other churches of Brussels contain little that is worth a visit. In that of Notre Dame de la Chapelle, there is a high altar from a design by Rubens, one of those works in which he has so profusely exhibited his astonishing command of arabesque and allegorical devices. The pulpit is another specimen of wood carving, representing Elijah fed by ravens. It is remarkable that in all the churches of Brussels, there is not a single painting of more than common place ability, nor a single specimen of either Vandyck or Rubens--painters, it would seem, like prophets, are to seek for their patrons at some distance from home.