The Governor of Brussels is the Marshal de Wrangel, a venerable old Man, and much respected. He is a Sweed, and, like M. de Zumjungen, has gone thro’ all the Military Employments from a Dragoon. He is not very rich, but lives handsomely upon what he has, and always keeps a very good Table.
The Prince de Rubempré is of the Family of Merode, one of the most distinguished in the Netherlands. He is Master of the Horse to the Archduchess, and Knight of the Golden Fleece, a very courteous Nobleman, and one of the richest in the Low Countries.
The Prince of Nassau is Captain of her most Serene Highness’s Band of Pensioners, and Knight of the Order of St. Hubert. He is the younger Brother of the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, who, after the Death of William III. King of Great Britain, assumed the Title of Prince of Orange; which he still goes by in Spain, where he is a Pensioner to the King. The Prince of Nassau, of whom I here make mention, was also formerly in the Service of Spain. He married the Sister of the Marquis de Nesle in France, and went some Years
ago into the Service of the Emperor, who made him one of his Lieutenant-Generals. I make no Doubt but his Birth, and the assiduous Application he gives to the Office which he holds under the Archduchess, will soon procure him the Honour of the Golden Fleece.
I shall set out in a few Days to make the Tour of Flanders, a Country so well known, and of which you have heard so often from Officers, who are continually going and coming to it, that I think, I need not confirm to you what you know of it already. Therefore, only expect a superficial Account of it. You shall hear from me by the next Post. Mean time, I have the Honour to be, &c.
LETTER XLV.
SIR,Liege, June 28, 1732.
From Brussels I went to Ghent, the Capital City of the County of Flanders, and a Bishoprick, suffragan to the Archbishop of Mechlin. The Scheld passes thro’ the City, which, with its Suburbs, is divided into several Islands by the Lys, and a great Number of Canals. ’Tis very large in Circumference, insomuch, that ’tis reported, the Emperor Charles V. us’d to say, That he could put Paris into his Gand[86]. This might be true enough then, but now Ghent might