Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1915-07-30

banner of st. George and the dragon,
with knights of the Fleece, with the
constable of France, with many lords
of Brabant and Hainaut, with horse
and foot and heavy artillery. The
Dinant men, at bay behind their wall.
ragged at the sight of him; it had come
to war at last, and they were Wal
looms with arms in their hands. d.
nant was sieged on all sides; the mas
ter of the artillery brought his bomb
ards up against the gates at full moon.
scattering such shot from his small
pieces that not q head might peep
over the wall. The captain Of the
brassworkers' guild would have fought
to the end. and his valiant smiths with
him. But the magistrates were CIV
ing up the key, while the captain was
carrying the city banner to the broken
wall. and the Bastard Of Burgundy
came in and the court after him, mag
nificent. pitiless. to sit In Judgment
upon Dinant. A few rich men ran
somed themselves dearly. But there
was much hanging and heading. At
Bouvignes they will show you the
cliff from which Dinant citizens, tied
neck and heels. were dropped into the
Mouse. There was pillage from house
to house: merchants from Brussels
had come with carts to carry away
passwords and household goods
bought cheap of the plundersrS. Last
ran the fire from end to end Of the
town. Dinant was burned In such,
fashion," says Olivier dc h Marche,
that it seemed as though Il had been
q ruin for q hundred year," For six
years 1t lay In its ashes. and then.
little by little, the life came back to
It. though never again came back the
pride and the wealth. lts rock WAS
crowned by q citadel. and the citadel
brought 1t storm and trouble IN the
French wars.
But the town lived meekIy In the
sight of Bouvignes; It never pros
pered. In July of 1914 Il Wa selling
gingerbread to peasants. and post
card pictures Of it, pretty old houses
to the tourists from the Namuf boat.
showing strangers the way mp the cliR
by the 400 steps in the rock dnd ssrv-
Ing dinners to holiday folk. h August,
q fatal month for Dinant. The Ger
mans came upon It with mightisr
bombards than those toys with which
Messire Pierre de HacQuembac had
made ready to blow in the gAtes.
Dinant once again II ruin from end
to end. Once again the chronicIer nay
write ICY fust Dinant"
Even a. Rachel mourned for her
children and would not be comfort-
ed, because they were not, 90 may thls
forlorn Belgium mourn for her 20.
ished cities.
There was little here for the over.
curious antiQuary. Those same archi-
tects who would call the church q
Dinant notable among all Belgian
churches had played here industrious-
ly those perverse tricks that they
name restoration.
The new bridge was such bridge
a. cunning engineers win throw you
over any river of Europe. Not thus
was the old bridge built. that carried
q castle upon its arches. For The rest
you had the lines Of higkgabIed
houses whose windows looked on ne
water. These, again. you WIN not
compare with houses ON the 0raslei e
Client, with the houses that line he
quays of Bruges. Yet the los Of
them is lamentable. irreparable. We
cannot rebuild antiquity. even though
1t be but the last antiquity. the latest
hands turn of work done before the
world fell into obedience Of the ma
chine and learned to rule it, straight
lines exactly. OF Dinant you may ct
least say that was what the old-fash-
toned landscape-man would frankly
call picturesque" he must have
called 1t SO many a time when he
took his sketch book to the western
bank and set to work upon It with .
soft-leaded pencil.
A friendly little town It was. one
of the decayed nobility among the
cities, yet affable and welcoming the
stranger.