the seals himself. Then he began to read them promptly, one after the other, made a sign to Master Olivier who appeared to exercise the office of minister, to take a pen, and without communicating to him the contents of the despatches, he began to dictate in a low voice, the replies which the latter wrote, on his knees, in an inconvenient attitude before the table.

Guillaume Rym was on the watch.

The king spoke so low that the Flemings heard nothing of his dictation, except some isolated and rather unintelligible scraps, such as, —

“To maintain the fertile places by commerce, and the sterile by manufactures� . — To show the English lords our four bombards, London, Brabant, Bourg-en-Bresse, Saint-Omer� . — Artillery is the cause of war being made more judiciously now� . —