Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/192

208 and times till I shall have scaled the Alps and descended to the soil of Piedmont, rich in promise.

The sun-illumined heights of Monte Rosa are not alone the points of union for the eye to glance over the valleys of Switzerland and Piedmont. Higher interests, more elevated heights, illumined by a never-setting sun, unite them and—all peoples.

, January 1860.

From Basle to Brussels—That which took me there—Le Congrès International de Bienfaisance—The New Exposition—Conversation with King Leopold—“The Little Sisters of the Poor”—Festivals and Ideas of the Future in Belgium—Ghent and the Beguines—Lace Making—Bruges—Flanders—A House in the Country—Ruysselede and Bernhem—Antwerp—Rubens' House—A Glance at Holland—A Statesman—Journey to Paris. golden September sun shone gloriously over the fertile plain of the Rhinelands, and golden harvests and wealthy towns lay basking in its beams and as I flew upon the wings of steam, over land and water, from Basle to Brussels. For I wished to be at Brussels on the 14th of September, to be present at the opening of the International Congress de Bienfaisance on the day following. I had been invited to this peculiar congress, the first of its kind, by a letter from its prime mover and conductor, Edward Duepeteaux, Director-General of prisons and benevolent institutions