This vessel was next enclosed in
a crystal tube, shut at the ends with golden stoppers, to which
ax chain of silver was attached. Then the Patriarch gave the tube
to Baldwin, from whose hands Thierry, kneeling on the steps of
the altar, received it with profound emotion.[*]
[Footnote *: Canon van Haecke, _Le Precieux Sang a Bruges_ (fourth
edition), pp. 95, 96.]
The Count, however, did not think his hands, which had shed so
much human blood, worthy to convey the relic home; and he entrusted
it to Leonius, chaplain of the Flemish Army, who hung it round
his neck, and so carried it to Bruges, where he arrived in May,
1150, along with Thierry, who, mounted on a white horse led by two
barefooted monks, and holding the relic in his hand, was conducted
in state to the Bourg, where he deposited the precious object in
the Chapel of St. Basil, which is commonly known as the Chapel
of the Holy Blood.
After some time the relic was found to be dry, but, strange to say,
it became liquid, we are told upon the authority of Pope Clement
V., every Friday, 'usually at six o'clock.' This weekly miracle
continued till about the year 1325. Since then it has never taken
place except once, in 1388, when the vial containing the relic
was being transferred to a new crystal tube; and on this occasion
William, Bishop of Ancona, was astonished to see the relic turning
redder than usual, and some drops, as of newly-shed blood, flowing
within the vial, which he was holding in his hand.
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