A Village in the Ardennes
At Hal there was a lovely old church, with a Virgin famous for miracles. We stopped and went in; choir boys were singing antiphonally, and there was a sweet smell of incense and a soft, religious light.
At Enghien there was a château which was favoured with a fairy protectrice, no less than Melusine, so famous in song and story. Long, long ago she married a mortal, Comte Raymond de Forêt, and raised for him a castle which she never ceased to guard. Always before the death of a member of the family “la fée Melusine apparaît sur la terrasse du château.” The Luxembourgs and other noble families changed their pedigrees in order that they might claim descent from fairy Melusine.
Of lower degree but even greater service were the fairies who dwelt aforetimes in a cave at Arquenne. The good folk of the neighbourhood used to leave their soiled linen there of an evening, with some food. In the morning they would return to find that the “little people” had done their work and left the clothes all clean and white.
After passing numberless quaint and picturesque villages we came at length to the gates of the park behind which stood the château of Belœil, with its courtyard and inclosing wings. We followed the road lined with orange trees and crossed a bridge over the moat into the broad court with the façade of the house on three sides. Footmen lined the steps as we mounted into the cool vestibule, from which we passed through various rooms into the handsome salons.
The house was a museum of valuable and historic things—potiches, curios and rare furniture. On the walls were great pictures representing scenes in the story of the de Lignes, and presentation portraits of kings and queens.
Through the windows we could see the wide moat outside, and the English garden opposite with its beds of brilliant flowers and its background of trees and foliage. Soon after luncheon we went out into the sunny glare and the great heat of the open terraces, and crossed into the cool alleys of the French garden.
A great lagoon opposite the main terrace was continued in a vista through the forest off to the horizon, broken by a monumental sculpture which was reflected in the water. The wood was divided formally by alleys leading to some architectural or natural detail, and open glades were arranged with pools, while a little rivulet, made artificially natural, went winding through the woods with a pretty path alongside.