60 
ared. The fortifications of Ostend 
ad been removed, by order of the 
emperor, who, says Mr. Muirhead, has 
taken a dislike to forts and monas- 
teries. Happy was it for the Flem- 
ings, that their towns were dismantled 
before the French revolution! They 
have now followed the fate of a battle, 
and escaped all the aggravated misery 
of sieges, assaults, and blockades. Of 
those evils, Ostend has had its share. 
«The memorable siege of three years, 
zhree months, three weeks, three days, and 
three hours, was attended with the dread- 
ful loss of 130,000 lives! When: the place 
at Jength surrendered, it was 2 heap of ruins. 
So, we may presume, was the smock of 
Isabella Eugenia, governess of the Low 
Countries, who rashly vowed not to change 
it during the siege.” The compliant ladies 
of the court, horresco referens, followed 
her example !” 
The town’s motto is, OstTENnpDE nobis, 
Domine, misericordiam tuam. May the 
prayer be heard, says the traveller, in 
spite of the pun; ‘and may the Lord 
deal more piteously with the good 
burghers, than their custom-house deals 
with strangers. 
From Ostend he went, by the canal, 
to Brnges and Ghent. The former of 
these town$ is in a wretched state of 
decline. 
This was the birth-place of Simon 
Stevin, the inventor of sailing chariots, 
whose grave Mr. Shandy would have 
visited. They ran at the rate of four 
Dutch'leagues an hour. Grotius wrote 
a poem in honour of the discovery. 
Mr. M. merely passed by Ghent, not 
having leisure to survey it. At Brus- 
sels he remained some time, and. has 
accordingly described the city. Among 
its wonders, he notices 
‘«© The little gentleman yclept manneké 
pisse, who performs unceasing duty, and 
sans facon, to the great edification’ of the 
good burghers. The French soldiers in 
1747, rudely profaned this diuretic palla- 
dium, and silenced the indignant murmurs 
of the inhabitants: but Lewis XIV. with 
laudable magnanimity, commanded that the 
person of the darling dwarf should be held 
sacred, arrayed im costly apparel; and dub- 
bed a knight of his own order. The che- 
valier still appears in full uniform upon gala 
days ; and, to such a degree has he become 
the man of the people, that his removal or 
mutilation might exeite an insurrection. 
Vive donc le manneké! 
« The grand Béguinage, an assemblage 
of houses, surrounded ‘by a wall, might 
accommodate 700 oy 800 Beguines, thaugh 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
they reckon at present scarcely half that 
number. This community is peculiar to 
the Low Countries, yet seems admirably 
adapted to the system of modern society, 
whether among catholics or protestants. 
The Beguine brings along with her the 
means of her maintenance, if she pos- 
sesses them, may regulate her own menage, 
or. join her stock to that of a 
lar company. .'The superior presides in 
matters of general discipline, and all attend 
upon the stated exercises of devotion: but 
most of the day is spent in the varied and 
elegant occupations of female hands. An 
individual may retire from the sisterhood, 
when she pleases, mingle again with the 
world, and enter into the married state.— 
The comparative fewness of ladies of easy 
virtue in several of the Flemish towns has 
been ascribed, and perhaps justly, to’ this 
salutary institution.” 
The men of Brabant are said to have 
a boyish uniformity of features: they 
are listless and indolent.~ In Brussels, 
they even yoke dogs to wheel-barrows 
and small sledges ; a pitiful shift to save 
trouble, and avoid paying toll. His 
tory has, however, says our traveller, 
stamped one decided lineament of the 
political character.of the Netherlands, 
namely, their extreme sensibility to-any 
infringement of their civil or religious 
institutions. This is true: it might 
have been remarked also, that in their 
interior wars, they have always. display- 
unparalleled in the history of any E 
particu-- 
egal omy ae 14 ~ 85 
cs 
a 
ed a brutal ferocity and wicked a. 4 
ropean nation, except France. 
From Brussels he travelled to Lau- 
sanne. Of the anecdotes suggested by 
the road, the following are the most ree 
markable : 
«© Duval relates, that he saw in the prison 
of Nancy, friar John, a hermit of Lorraine, 
who, in imitation of Jesus Christ, abstained 
from aliment during 40 days, or rather from 
solid food, for it is allowed that he drank 
water. In one of his paroxysms of insanity 
he killed a man whom he deemed importu- 
nate, and had -his sentence of death com= 
muted into perpetual confinement. Being 
seized with an insatiable curiosity to examine 
the internal structure of his body, and hay- 
ing made a large incision with a piece of 
glass, he was proceeding to contemplate 
the viscera with great composure, when a 
surgeon Inckily interfered, and, with some . 
diflieulty, succeeded in healing his wounds. 
«< The adyentures of the abbé de Vatte- 
ville are so singular, and so little known, 
that I am tempted to trace, their outline, 
He was brother, to baron de Yatteville, 
once ambassador at the conrt of London, 
. > . - + . 
The abbé, when colonel of thé regimeit of 
Burgfndy, in the service of Philip 1V, 
