Belgium.--Dog-carts.--Waterloo.--Aix-la-Chapelle and Charlemagne.--Story of Charlemagne.--Ghent and James van Artevelde.--Bruges.--Story of Charles the Rash.--Longfellow's "Belfry of Bruges."--French Diligences.--Normandy.--A Story-telling Driver.--Story of the Wild Girl Of Songi. "Anvers!" By this name is Antwerp known in Belgium, of which it is the chief commercial port. The Class stopped here only long enough to visit the Cathedral, where are to be seen two of Rubens' most celebrated pictures, the Elevation of and the Descent from the Cross. The boys climbed up to the belfry of the famous spire, whose bells make the air tremble for miles with the melody of their chimes. It was Master Lewis's plan to travel through the lower part of Belgium and through Normandy by short journeys near the coast, but he made a détour from Antwerp to Brussels that the boys might visit the battlefield of Waterloo. The landscape along the route to Brussels was dotted with quaint windmills, reminding one of the old pictorial histories, in which Holland is illustrated by cuts of these workshops of the air. The boys entered the city in the morning and passed in view of the great market square and its contiguous streets. "This city," said Frank Gray, "was the scene of the grand military ball before the Battle of Waterloo. "'There was a sound of revelry by night, And Belgium's capital had gathered then Her beauty and her chivalry, and--'" "And please don't quote the reading book," said Tommy Toby. "The city is full of _dog-carts_. Dog-carts heaped full of vegetables and women to lead about the dogs! What a comical sight!" [Illustration: {A DUTCH WINDMILL.}] "They are probably country people with produce to sell," said Wyllys. "What curious head-dresses! What odd jackets! The scene does not much remind one of Byron's poetry; but it is poetic, after all!" "I understood that we came here to study the associations of history," said Frank, "and not dog-carts." "I came to see what I could see," said Tommy, "and not to imagine battles in the air." [Illustration: DOG-CARTS.] The unexpected street scenes and the general interest of the Class in them so offended Frank that he turned his eyes with a far-away look towards the highest gables, and passed on the rest of the way to the Hotel de l'Europe in silence. The next morning the Class left the Place Royale, in a fine English stage-coach, in company with an agent of the English mail coaches, for Waterloo, which is about twelve miles from the city. It was a bright day, and the airy road led through the forest of Soignies,--the "Ardennes" of Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." "And Ardennes waves about them her green leaves, Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass." The battlefield of Waterloo is an open plain, graced here and there with appropriate monuments, and dignified with an imposing earth mound with the Belgian Lion on its top.