The churches in Louvain, notwithstanding the long presence of so many luminaries of the establishment, are not eminent for either their riches or their beauty. The Collegiate Church of St. Pierre, which is the principal one, has a superbly carved pulpit by Berger of great height--a rock crowned with trees, and at its foot, St. Peter on one side denying Christ, and at the other, Saul struck from his horse on his way to persecute the Christians of Damascus. A little chapel at the back of the altar is dedicated to St. Margaret, the saint of maid-servants, and is connected with a curious little legend illustrative of the times. _Margrietje_ was the domestic of an old couple, who kept an hostelry for pilgrims in the year 1225, at Louvain. Her master and his wife had resolved to retire from the world, and had converted all their property into money, with which they were about to retire into the monastery of St. Bernard. On the eve of their putting this plan into execution, however, some miscreants formed a conspiracy to assassinate them, and, disguising themselves as pilgrims, came late in the evening to seek for shelter at the accustomed inn. The good old people anxious to perform their last act of charity, sent Margaret to bring wine in a wooden bottle, still preserved in the church. The pretended pilgrims then strangled their hosts, and on Margaret’s return, she shared a similar fate. Her body, however, which they carried out and precipitated into the Dyle, instead of sinking in the river, floated back against the stream crowned with an aureole, and the ripple of the water making sweet music as it bore her along. The Duke and Duchess of Brabant astonished at the miracle, caused a chapel to be built for her remains at the back of the great church of St. Pierre, where her body was embalmed and enclosed in a gilded shrine. The fame and the fidelity of the interesting saint attracted crowds of devotees to her tomb, and in time the door upon the street was closed, and another opened from the church, where the chapel and the altar of Margrietje are still the favourite resort of the serving maidens of Brabant. The church of Saint Michel, which once belonged to the order of the Jesuits, was one of the most sumptuous in the city: it has, however, been dismantled of all its ornaments, and its superbly carved pulpit was removed by Maria Theresa to the Church of St. Gudule at Brussels. During the reign of the French republic, St. Michel’s was converted into the Temple of Reason for the district, and the statue of the Saviour was removed from the altar to make room for the Goddess of Liberty. The tomb of Justus Lipsius in the old ruined convent of the Recollets, with its sententious inscription written by himself, is a curious illustration of “the pride that apes humility.”