For a moment woke the echoes
Of the ancient town of Bruges.'

[Illustration: BRUGES. Quai des Marbriers.]




THE BRUGES MATINS--BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS




CHAPTER IV

THE BRUGES MATINS--BATTLE OF THE GOLDEN SPURS

The visitor to Bruges is reminded, wherever he goes, of the stirring
events which fill the chronicles of the town for several centuries.
Opposite the Belfry, in the middle of the Market-Place, is the
monument to Peter De Coninck and John Breidel, on which garlands
of flowers are laid every summer, in memory of what they did when
the burghers rose against the French in May, 1302; and amongst
the modern frescoes which cover the walls of the Grande Salle des
Échevins in the Hôtel de Ville, with its roof of fourteenth-century
woodwork, is one which represents the return from the Battle of
the Golden Spurs, that famous fight in which the hardy peasantry
of Flanders overthrew the knights of France whom Philip the Fair
had sent to avenge the blood of the Frenchmen who had died on the
terrible morning of the 'Bruges Matins.'