In the quarter dominated by the cathedral is the Royal Palace, the
official residence of the Court; and the majestic white Palace of
Justice, “the largest architectural work of the nineteenth century,”
which cost ten million dollars to build and contains nearly 300 court
rooms and apartments. The Conservatory of Music, in a neighboring
street, has had many pupils and teachers whose names are familiar to
all lovers of music--the violin masters, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, César
Thomson, Ysaye (a native of Liège), and Alphonse Mailly, the organist.
Outside the limits of the city, beyond the canal that connects Brussels
with the sea, is the extensive Park of Laeken and the established
residence of the King and Queen. Another excursion out of Brussels
takes us to the battlefield of Waterloo, where the forces of the
English and the Prussians defeated the French, June 18, 1815, and made
an end of the all-conquering career of the great Napoleon.
_Malines, Antwerp, Ghent_
On the road to Antwerp we digress a little to visit the very old
Flemish town of Louvain (loo-van), whose name was early written into
the history of the War through the ruthless destruction of the library
of the University--two centuries ago the most distinguished seat of
learning in Europe. The Town Hall, moreover, has always been given
first place among all the ornately beautiful halls of the nation.
Malines (mah-leen), called Mechlin in Flemish, betrays wounds inflicted
during three weeks’ bombardment. It has wide fame for its lace and
its cathedral pictures, and for its amazing clock tower. When it was
begun in the year 1452, the architect of the tower intended to make it
“the highest in Christendom”; but he never reached what we may call
the height of his ambition. The square, unfinished structure rises
magnificently 318 feet above the street, but does not approach by
200 feet the lofty tower of the Cathedral of Ulm, in the kingdom of
Württemberg.
[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. ROMBOLD, MALINES (MECHLIN)