After the Restoration Charles sent
to the citizens of Bruges a letter of thanks for the way in which
they had received him. Nor did he forget, amidst the pleasures of
the Court at Whitehall, the simple pastimes of the honest burghers,
but presented to the archers of the Society of St. Sebastian the
sum of 3,600 florins, which were expended on their hall of meeting.
More than a hundred years later, when the Stuart dynasty was a thing
of the past and George III. was seated on the throne of England,
the Rue Haute saw the arrival of some travellers who were very
different from the roystering Cavaliers and frail beauties who had
made it gay in the days of the Merry Monarch. The English Jesuits
of St. Omer, when expelled from their college, came to Bruges in
August, 1762, and took up their abode in the House of the Seven
Towers, where they found 'nothing but naked walls and empty chambers.'
A miserable place it must have been. 'In one room a rough table of
planks had been set up, and the famished travellers were rejoiced
at the sight of three roast legs of mutton set on the primitive
table. Knives, forks, and plates there were none. A Flemish servant
divided the food with his pocket-knife. A farthing candle gave
a Rembrandt-like effect to the scene.
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