Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
The Flight of the Earls (Author: Tadhg Ó Cianáin)
section 54
The next morning they went on a visit to the Irish college in the city. That college was very beautiful, with numerous apartments and many students. They heard High Mass that was sung, with sweet, melodious organs and instruments of music of all kinds. Petarcha, a Spaniard of noble birth, was in charge of the college. He insisted on their being present at a banquet with him. Afterwards he brought them to see his own house. He gave to Ó Néill and the Earl two images of the Virgin Mary that were made of the famous tree in which had been discovered shortly before that the miraculous statue of Mary called Notre Dame de Buais, which heals daily and in large numbers the diseased and the infirm by the grace of God and Holy Mary. They then went to see the house and gardens of the Burgomaster, the chief officer of the town. Very pretty and beautiful was that sight, with many statues and pictures of apostles, saints, and holy people
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made of pure white marble. They went from there to the place where the glasses were made. Strange and wonderful and skilful was the method and manner in which they made and prepared from the beginning the fire in which they are made. It had been continually lighted by day and night for eleven years before that time. If once a cessation or quenching should come on its flames, not less than five hundred pounds would be spent in kindling it again before one glass could come out of it completed. They went from. that place to a very imposing town hall in the centre of the city. That house was very beautiful, strong, and well-built, but because of the war that had been there at that time, it was not open to visitors. They went to another remarkable house called a 'guesthouse'. There are in that house sleeping-rooms and dining-rooms prepared for every traveller of every nation in Christendom. The city of Antwerp ranks among the richest, most beautiful, strongest, most impregnable, and best built cities in the world, with a very beautiful river, and both sea and land in proximity to it.