Italy, and Greece, and
made himself the ruler of the greater part of Northern and Eastern
Europe. He went to Rome in 800 A.D. and received a most gracious
reception from the Pope, as in all his contests he had been a faithful
servant of the Church.

"On Christmas day, 800 A.D. he went into St. Peter's to attend mass.
He took his place before the altar, and, as he bowed his head to pray,
the Pope placed the crown of the Roman Empire upon it, and all the
people shouted, 'Long live Charles Augustus, crowned of God, the great
Emperor of the Romans!'

"And so the king of the Franks became the emperor of the world."

The relics which the cathedral exhibits from time to time at great
public festivals are remarkable as illustrations of the influence of
superstition. Among the so-called _Grandes Reliques_ are the robe worn
by the Virgin at the Nativity and the swaddling clothes in which the
infant Saviour was wrapped. It would be almost irreverent to excite
ridicule by giving a list of the articles associated with the
crucifixion of Christ. Among the _Petites Reliques_ are pieces of
Aaron's rod that budded. Upon these pretended relics the German
emperors used to take the State oath at their coronations.

[Illustration: HOTEL DE VILLE, GHENT.]

The Class next visited the coronation room in the Hotel de Ville, a
hall one hundred and sixty feet long, where a series of impressive
frescoes presents a view of the life of Charlemagne. In this hall
thirty-five German emperors and fourteen empresses had been crowned.

[Illustration: VAN ARTEVELDE AT HIS DOOR.]

The Class returned to Brussels, and thence made easy journeys
through a fertile and thickly settled country, towards Normandy.

Ghent, a grand old city of the commerce kings of Flanders, with its
quaint town-hall and its two hundred and seventy bridges, next met the
eager eyes of our tourists, who stopped here briefly on their way to
Bruges.

"I never hear the name of Ghent pronounced," said Master Lewis,
"without recalling the scene which history pictures of James van
Artevelde standing in the door of his house, when the burghers, tired
of the rule of kings and nobles, came to him for counsel, and asked
him to become their leader. It was really the burghers' declaration of
independence, and the making one of their number,--for James van
Artevelde was a brewer,--president of the rich old city. This was on
the 26th of December, 1337. It was a bold stroke for liberty in t