Rue du Vieux Bourg with the Dyver.

Thus the boundaries of early Bruges can easily be traced; but nothing
remains of the ancient buildings, though we read of a warehouse,
booths, and a prison, besides the dwelling-houses of the townsfolk.
The elements, at least, of civic life were there; and tradition
says that in or near the village, for it was nothing more, some
altars of the Christian faith were set up during the seventh and
eighth centuries. Trade, too, soon began to flourish, and grew
rapidly as the population of the place increased. The Roya, flowing
eastwards, fell into the Zwijn, an arm of the sea, which then ran
up close to the town, and on which stood Damme, now a small inland
village, but once a busy port crowded with shipping. The commercial
life of Bruges depended on the Zwijn; and that much business was
done before the close of the ninth century is shown by the fact
that Bruges had then a coinage of its own.[*] It was from such
small beginnings that this famous, 'Venice of the North' arose.

[Footnote *: Gilliodts van Severen, _Bruges Ancienne et Moderne_,
pp. 7, 8, 9.]

[Illustration: BRUGES. Porte d'Ostende.]




BALDWIN BRAS-DE-FRE--THE PLACE DU BOURG--MURDER OF CHARLES THE GOOD