| OCR Text |
Show FOURTAMOUS'CITIES--LIBERATED BY ALLIES BY ELBERT J. BENTON Feunout American Authority on European Hiitory , DOUAl Doual haa been taken. Before tha .war Douat had an honorable ' place among tha Industrial cities of northera France. , i Through the dust and grime and smoke of cos I mines and factorlae there were visible to tha tourist several monuments of rich past. None poa-sessed poa-sessed mors Interest to tha Englleh speaking world than the Englleh Catholic Cath-olic college In the heart of tha city. Tha atress ' of tha Keformatloa In England under Queen KUaabeth and King James drove out two streams of refugees. One, of Radical Protestants, paaaed to Leydsn, from whence Paator John Robuuon sent tha Pilgrims with hla blessings on their way to Plymouth and to the foundation of a new Kn-gland Kn-gland In North America, Tha other stream, of Roman Catholic, took refuge ref-uge In France at Doual and Rhelma. Their leader. William Allen, established a college at Ioual, that a supply of leaders might not be wanting;, and himself, him-self, a scholar, became ona of Its pro-! pro-! lessors. Before tha war about hundred English En-glish boys still annually attsnded tha Doual school. At Doual refugees published pub-lished In ISO! an English version of the Old Testament the Doual Bible which English speaking Catholics now use. ' OSTEND 1 1 I ' Tha evacuation of Oatend opena tha western gateway of Belgium. Ships of peace and war can once mora en ter Its apacioua port. If the Germane have left the great achlevementa of tha Belgian a In harbor Improvement unmolested. The four years that have Just paaaed for Oatend recall another story of Ita history- Durl the last years of the sixteenth century the king of Spain had forced nearly all the Flemish towns to recognise his sovereignty. The Inhabitants of Oatend, encouraged by some aid from the Dutch, the Kn-gllah Kn-gllah and the French by. sea, held oirt against the armies sent, from Spain for Its conquest. For three years, K01-1.04. a Spanish Span-ish army laid alege to Oatend. An American historian, John Motley, tells In 'the "History of the United Netherlands," Nether-lands," the story of Oatend' a defenae. - Italian englneera conatructed a huge floating battery for the 8 pan lards, but the sea, ever the ally of tha Be-glana, Be-glana, wrecked It before It could serve Its purpose; they built a gigantic chariot drawn by forty horses; It was a moving fortress with guns, drawbridges draw-bridges and anchors; but tha wheels sank In the aand. Immovable. Resort waa had to charge after charge, but all In vain; the alout defenders held out. The Hpanieh general finally mined the defenses snd blasted great gaps through which the besiegers entered en-tered the city. Two-thirds of Ostend lay In ruins. . Then followed a long era of bondage. bon-dage. For mora than two centurlea the cities of Flanders were bound up with the declining fortunes of the king(Tomof Spain and then the Austrian Aus-trian houae of Hapaburga. History can hardly be aald to have been kind to the cities of the southern Netherlands, Nether-lands, but In this manner heroic nations na-tions are made. ' COURTRAI Courtral, ana of tha famoua Flemish Flem-ish towns of Belgium, Is free. Thla la a record that history haa repeatedly made.- for Courtral's struggle with ths .oppressor his been ceaseless. 1 There was a time when Courtral, 1 like Bruges and Yprea, ranked with V'enloa and Naplea and Genoa among tha great cities of Europe. Tha his, tory of tha Klemlsh towns Is a large part of tha atruggla of tha working-men working-men against ths privileged classes. Ths charters which the townsmen won were their msgnae thartea no leaa i than the more famoua ona of England. En-gland. a In ll: there waa fought outside of the walla of Cuurtral one of tha great battles of history. The allied arllaans of Irruges, Yprea and t'ourtral met and decisively defeated tha flower of French knighthood. About 1100 knights were killed. From ths bodies of the dead the vlctora collected ?vv golden apura. 'The Incident gava tha name the Battle of the Spurs. Tha tide of battle later turned for period pe-riod against ths Flemish cities, and In revenge for tha Mattle of ths rtpure tha king of France had t'ourtral burned to the ground: Few niiejiumente of the experiences of 1,'ourtrsl hsve survived such disasters. BUV A BONO I ' I BRUGES ' The gem of Belgian cities la again free. Bruges, the city of bridges, aa Ma name Indira tea. was. before the Hun occupied It, one of the moat Inter eating eat-ing and beautiful cities of Kurope. "The canals which tnreaded Ita atfeeta gave It a rtaemblance to Venire. It richly deserves to be free again. In order to asa,on throuau tourists the glorious atory of Ita past. When Columbus discovered America. Bruges was the emporium of northern Kurope. Its stock exchange regulated the rate of exchange of Kurope. The channel of the Zwyn. since silted up, was then navigable for tha ehips which traded w.th the remotest porta of Europe, and tha narbor of Brugea swarmei with life. It waa a prosperity prosper-ity built on the thrift and industry of the Inhabitants. In 1439 I'hiMp the Oood.Duke of Burgundy, Bur-gundy, founded at Brugea the Order of the Golden Meere, probably In honor of the eta pie Industry of the country. Feudal lorda might honor. the weavera and butchers and smiths of Bruges end Its neighbors. They could not reduce them to serfdom. I.ntl the nineteenth century gave the cities of Flanders peace aa a lart of neutralixed Belgium, these carried on a ceaseless struggle to retain the liberties wdn by their citizen- in the middle ntre-i |
