Frontispiece: Dinant, Showing Old Castle and Cathedraldetails

When we fared forth into the streets of Dinant the morning after our arrival, we found a town decked with pine branches and flowers, and a happy, busy multitude thronging the streets. The pavement and even the rough stones of the roadway were be-strewn with pine boughs and freshly mown long grass, and here and there were bright bunches of stock and clematis, until our feet fairly sank into the fragrant green carpet and crushed out perfume as we walked. It seemed as though one thought dominated, one effect was uppermost in the minds of the townspeople, and never was a town so given over to its festival as this quaint Ardennes town divided by the charming winding Meuse. All ordinary occupations seemed forgotten, and these usually quiet, reserved people were now bent upon making this day the chief event of the year, for it is the great Fête-Dieu, the feast of the year. (p. 9)