The chief reason for believing that Baldwin was an impostor is the fact that at this crisis of his career he failed signally to show any of the decision and judgment that twenty years before had made the true Baldwin Emperor. To be sure, twenty years of slavery, and the haunting memory of the beautiful Marie of Champagne who had followed him to her death, and of the Bulgarian princess whom he had so basely slain, may have enfeebled his intellect. He was now an old man. At all events, after a period of indecision he did the very thing he never should have done—he appealed to Philip for aid against his daughter. Summoned to Péronne, where the King of France was then holding court, he was subjected to a trial by the royal Council, which clearly showed its determination to convict him as an impostor. Perceiving that he had blundered into a trap, the old man fled from the castle and escaped to Flanders. Here, however, the appeal to Philip and its result, together with much French gold judiciously expended in behalf of Jeanne, caused the nobility to turn cold. He determined to lay his cause before the Pope, but while on his way to Rome was captured and sold to Jeanne who ordered him to be hanged in chains in the market-place at Lille between two hounds. If he was the true Baldwin, after all, few careers in history offer wider contrasts of glory and shame.
HOTEL MERGHELYNCK, YPRES.
Whether one stays at Ypres a day or a week he will not lack for objects of interest, for the Cloth Hall and the Cathedral are but the beginning of the list. A day is hardly too much to devote to the rue de Lille alone, for here are the Hospice Belle, with a number of valuable old paintings, and the Hotel-Musée Merghelynck. The latter is an institution as unique as it is admirable. Built in 1774 by François Merghelynck, a Treasurer and Grand Bailiff of Ypres, this fine mansion is filled with furniture and objets d’art of the eighteenth century coming from Flanders, Holland and France and collected with rare taste and judgment. In its entirety it represents the residence of a nobleman of the period, complete down to the smallest detail, with every article in its proper place, as if the owner had just stepped out and might be expected back at any moment. The seven principal rooms are panelled with carved wood. The dining-room is decorated with bas-reliefs representing all of the principal implements of husbandry. These were carved by Antony Deledicque of Lille and have been compared with the work in some of the smaller rooms in the Palace of Versailles. The music-room is similarly embellished with representations of musical instruments, and all have fine panel friezes and gilded carvings. In each room the proprietor of the mansion, Arthur Merghelynck, the great-grandson of the original owner, has collected a complete equipment of eighteenth-century furniture. The dining-room has rare porcelain from Tournai, with the precious gilt marks of the choicest make, the music-room has an old-time harpsichord, the kitchen possesses an array of old-time pewter, copper and brassware. In the chambers the same plan has been faithfully carried out, even to placing the owner’s uniforms and gala raiment in the wardrobes. Permission to visit these delightful rooms is freely granted to all visitors to Ypres without charge, other than an optional fee to the attendant. We were told that natives of the city are not admitted, but forgot to ask the caretaker if this was true.
A little farther down this same rue de Lille is an old edifice that for many years has been called the House of the Templars. It has been restored and is now used as the Post Office—it was for a long time a brewery—but it is not now believed that this was ever the House of the famous mediæval order. The Templars, however, did erect at Ypres their first house in Europe, and it may well be that this structure was copied from it. Beyond this interesting edifice we encountered a grim-looking old church, that of St. Peter, within the doorway of which is a most curious mediæval Calvary. This church is one of the oldest in Flanders, having been built in 1073 by Robert the Frisian, one of the early Counts. On this street also stands the Hospice St. Jean which was founded in 1277. It contains one fine timbered ceiling room, with panelled walls, called the nuns’ workroom, and some paintings by Kerel van Yper, an obscure local artist of the sixteenth century.
CHURCH OF ST. PETER, YPRES.
In this section we were so fortunate as to see the lace workers, of whom there are still several hundred, making point de Valenciennes outside the doors of their tiny houses. Mrs. Professor never tired of watching these women,—who are for the most part middle-aged, while some of them are very old—as their nimble fingers dexterously shifted the innumerable little bobbins to and fro, while the delicate fabric slowly took the design upon which they were working. It is said that more Valenciennes lace is made here at Ypres, and at Courtrai and among the little Flemish towns between these two cities, than in the French city from which this fine point derives its name.
It is along the rue de Lille that the visitor will (let us hope!) find the wooden house that is the last, or nearly the last, survival of a type of architecture that was once very common in Ypres. It is inferior to the one in the Cloth Hall, which also came from this street, but is still in use—although it seemed to be closed when we passed it. A few steps further on we came to the Porte de Lille with its three semi-circular towers, erected in 1395. The Porte is connected with the open country beyond by a bridge across the wide moat, in which a stately white swan was swimming. The ancient walls, built by the famous military engineer Vauban, extend here for a long distance in both directions and are in a fairly good state of preservation. At the Porte de Thourout, where the fortifications end on the northeastern side of the town, there is an open-air swimming pool which, according to the local guidebook is free during certain hours for men Saturday and Sunday, for women Wednesday, for soldiers Thursday and Friday, and for ladies Tuesday. The distinction between the women who can come on Wednesday and the ladies who are admitted Tuesday is not stated.