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I am inclined now to think that my fears, as far as he was concerned, were groundless, but nevertheless they were very real that day in the old tower of Saint Rombauld. He began his task of winding up the mechanism, while I mounted the steep steps leading upwards to the top gallery.
Rombauld were played by a celebrated bell-ringer, while the square below the tower was black with people listening breathlessly to the songs of their forefathers, often joining in the chorus, the sounds of the voices carrying a long distance.
You have not yet seen them?" St. Rombauld simply compelled one's attention, and ended by laying so firm a hold upon the imagination that at no moment of the day or night was one wholly unconscious of its unique presence. By day and night its chimes floated through the air "like the music of fairy bells," weird and soft, noting the passing hours in this ancient Flemish town.
And so, however interesting the other architectural attractions of Malines might be, and they were many, it was always to the great cathedral that one turned, for the townspeople were so proud of the great gray tower, venerated throughout the whole region, that they were insistent that we should explore it to the last detail. "The bells," they would exclaim, "the great bells of Saint Rombauld!
These decorations are usually confined to the top and bottom rims of the bell, and are in low relief, so as to impede the vibration as little as possible. I did not see this bell when I was in the tower of St. Rombauld, as the light in the bell chamber was very dim. The inscription was carried right around the bell, and had all the grace and freedom of a spirited sketch.
And there were innumerable fountains and tall iron pumps of knights in armor; forgotten heroes of bygone ages, all of great artistic merit and value; and over all was the dominating tower of St. Rombauld, vast, gray, and mysterious, limned against the pearly, luminous sky, the more impressive perhaps because of its unfinished state.
Daniel Van Yleghem was the chief workman upon the Holy tabernacle of the chief altar of St. Rombauld. Jean Van Orshagen occupied the position of Royal Mint Engraver of Malines, 1464-65. The following year he was discovered passing false money at Louvain. Imprisoned, he died of the pestilence in 1471. For the town he made many beautiful pieces of work, notably the silver statue of St.
The citizens so appreciated his work that the council awarded him a pension of two hundred florins, "which he enjoyed for fourteen years." St. Rombauld was famous for its chime of forty-five bells of remarkable silvery quality: masterpieces of Flemish bell founding. Malines was for many hundreds of years the headquarters of bell founding.
Rombauld which decorated the high altar of the Cathedral. He died in 1482. Zacherie Van Steynemolen, born about 1434, was an excellent engraver of dies. Notably he engraved for the Emperor Frederic IV the two great seals which are now in the museum. He died in 1507. Michael or Michel Coxie, le vieux, was a greatly esteemed painter who worked under the direction of Raphaël.
I confess that I was coward enough to give him two francs as a fee instead of the single one which was his due, and then I stumbled down the long winding stairway, grasping the slippery hand rope timorously until I gained the street level, glad to be among fellow beings once more, but not sorry I had spent the afternoon among the bells of the Carillon of Saint Rombauld those bells which now lie broken among the ashes of the tower in the Grand' Place of the ruined town of Malines.
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