28

BRUSSELS .

museum is poorly furnished. The range ofpublic buildings on one side of the park isremarkably fine: the park itself is small,but contains some good pieces of sculpture,and is the gay promenade of this eleganttown.

Hearing that if I started immediately Ishould be in time to see the entrance ofthe King into Paris , I hastily bade adieu toBrussels , and passing rapidly throughMons in the night, breakfasted at Valen­ ciennes , a wretched dirty place, much in-ferior to what I had expected. The forti-fications appeared falling into decay, andthe inhabitants sinking into poverty.

From Valenciennes I proceeded to Cam-bray, near which, on the road to Peronne ,

I passed a large abbey about a mile onthe left, the name of which my unintelli-gent guide could not tell me. I reachedPeronne in the evening, and travellingagain all night, in the morning passedthrough Pont St. Maxence , (remarkablefor a beautiful stone bridge over the Oise ,