On the 2nd of May every year from 1303 until now--save for a brief interruption during the stormy times of the French Revolution--the city of Bruges has celebrated its possession of this holy relic by the great Procession of the Holy Blood. At first simply a religious ceremony, the procession gradually took on spectacular features such as the Flemings love, including representations of the Apostles, the Nativity, King Herod, and so on. At present _La Noble Confrerie du Precieux Sang_, or Honourable Society of the Holy Blood, is a very wealthy and aristocratic organisation, even its affiliated members--of whom there are several thousands, of every nationality--esteeming their connection with it a great honour. During the French Revolution mobs stripped the chapel of everything that could be torn down or broken, leaving it such a wreck that the municipal authorities were considering tearing it down, but were happily prevented from doing so by Napoleon. The lower chapel was, however, used as a jail for drunken and disorderly persons--and even as a pound for stray dogs--until 1818. The upper chapel meanwhile was roofless and windowless, a sad wreck of so ancient and famous a structure. Both have since been restored, the lower--or Chapel of St. Basil--being now just as it was in 1150, and, in the opinion of many critics, "the most beautiful and perfect specimen of Romanesque architecture in Europe." We had already inspected the lower chapel while exploring the Vieux Bourg of Baldwin of the Iron Arm our first day at Bruges, but had not spent much time in the upper one. Here the most interesting object was naturally the chasse, or casket, containing the holy relic after which the chapel is named. This is on one side of the little museum of the chapel and is of silver-gilt, standing four feet, three inches high. It was made in 1617 by a silversmith of Bruges and, while not regarded as a masterpiece of its kind, is very graceful and elegant. The chapel itself is richly decorated and has some excellent stained glass windows, all of this work dating from the middle of the last century.