As to what passed on our canal voyage to Ghent, I can only say that every thing passed us--for the roads were very heavy, the horses very lazy, and the boys still lazier--they rode their horses listlessly, sitting on them sideways, as I have seen lads in the country swinging on a gate--whereby the _gait_ of the track-schuyt could not be styled a swinging pace. We did arrive at last, and thus ended our water carriage. At Ghent we went to the Hotel Royal, from out of the windows of which I had a fine view of the belfry, surmounted by the Brazen Dragon brought from Constantinople; and as I conjured up times past, and I thought how the belfry was built and how the dragon got there, I found myself at last wandering in the Apocrypha of "Bel and the Dragon." We went to see the picture by Van Eck, in the cathedral of Saint Bovin. The reader will probably wish to know who was Saint Bovin--so did I--and I asked the question of the sacristan: the reader shall have the benefit of the answer, "Saint Bovin, monsieur, il etait un _saint_." That picture of Van Eck's is worth a van full of most of the pictures we see: it was Van Eck who invented, and was indeed the father of painting in oil. It is a wonderful production. Mrs Trollope says that people run through Belgium as if it were a mere railroad to other countries. That is very true--we did the same--for who would stop at Ostend to be swindled, or at Bruges to look at empty houses, or at Ghent, which is nothing but a Flanders Birmingham, when Brussels and King Leopold, and the anticipation of something more agreeable, were only thirty miles off. Not one day was our departure postponed; with post-horses and postilions we posted post haste to Brussels. CHAPTER FIVE. April 22. The Queen of Belgium "a fait un enfant." On the Continent it is always the wife who is considered as the faiseuse; the husband is supposed, and very often with justice to have had nothing to do in the matter--it certainly does appear to be optional on the part of the ladies, for they limit their family to their exact wishes or means of support. How different is it in England, where children will be born whether it is convenient or not! O Miss Martineau! you may talk about the "preventive check," but where is it? In England it would be as valuable as the philosopher's stone.