of Louis XVIII. after his flight. All the time there is the pleasant
musical jangle going on of tramcars below and bell-chimes aloft. But
of all things in Lille, or indeed elsewhere, there is nothing more
striking than the old Bourse--the great square venerable block,
blackened all over with age, its innumerable windows, high roof, and
cornices, all elaborately and floridly wrought in decayed carvings.
With this dark and venerable mass is piquantly contrasted the garish
row of glittering shops filled with gaudy wares which forms the
lowest story. Within is the noble court with a colonnade of pillars
and arches in the florid Spanish style; in the centre a splendid
bronze statue of the First Napoleon in his robes, which is so wrought
as to harmonize admirably with the rest. In the same congenial
spirit--a note of Belgian art which is quite unfamiliar to us--the
walls of the colonnade are decorated with memorials of famous 'Stock
Exchange' worthies and merchants, and nothing could be more skilful
than the enrichment of these conventional records, which are made to
harmonize by florid rococo decorations with the Spanish _genre_ and
encrusted with bronzes and marbles. This admirable and original
monument is in itself worth a journey to see.

Who has been at Commines? though we are all familiar enough with the
name of Philip of 'that ilk.' I saw how patriarchal life must be at
Commines from a family repairing thither, who filled the whole
compartment. This was a lady arrayed in as much jet-work as she could
well carry, and who must have been an admirable _femme de ménage_, for
she brought with her three little girls, and two obstreperous boys who
kept saying every minute 'maman!' in a sort of whine or expostulation,
and two _aides-de-camp_ maids in spotless fly-away caps. With these
assistants she was on perfect terms, and the maids conversed with her
and dissented from her opinions on the happiest terms of equality.