title: Flanders: A Cultural History (Landscapes of the Imagination)
author: Andre de Vries
description: <br>"Informative and lucid....De Vries's writing is vivid."--T. Goyens, <em>CHOICE</em>
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](resources/_cover_.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # Christ in Flanders
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Honore de Balzac
  
  
  ##### Translated by Ellen Marriage
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
  DEDICATION
  
  
  
  
  
  To Marcelline Desbordes-Valmore, a daughter of Flanders, of whom
  
  
  these modern days may well be proud, I dedicate this quaint legend
  
  
  of old Flanders.
  
  
  
  
  
  DE BALZAC.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  At a dimly remote period in the history of Brabant, communication
  
  
  between the Island of Cadzand and the Flemish coast was kept up by a
  
  
  boat which carried passengers from one shore to the other. Middelburg,
  
  
  the chief town in the island, destined to become so famous in the
  
  
  annals of Protestantism, at that time only numbered some two or three
  
  
  hundred hearths; and the prosperous town of Ostend was an obscure
  
  
  haven, a straggling village where pirates dwelt in security among the
  
  
  fishermen and the few poor merchants who lived in the place.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  But though the town of Ostend consisted altogether of some score of
  
  
  hous