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STILL IN ANTWERP 249
The damage done is insignilicant, and can be repaired in a
day. If the shell had been maliciously inchned, and if Kubens’s
famous pictures, " The Crucifixion " and the " Descent from
the Cross," had been in their usual places in the transept
facing towards Place Vciic, where the shell struck, they would
have been in a perilous position. But they were removed
before the bombardment and stored in a place of safety, like all
other valuable pictures and art treasures in Antwerp. The
only trace which the shell has left in the interior of the church
is a scratch in one of the pillars.
From the chancel one has a splendid view over the seven
aisles and the majestic vaulted roof which was lost from view
in the deep gloom above. It is a forest of mighty pillars pre-
senting an ever-varying perspective—the nearest columns
faintly illuminated from the windows, the more distant ones
gradually merging into the sombre tint of the waning twilight.
It is dark enough at the best of times in St. Joseph’s Chapel
and St. Anthony’s Chapel, where windows four hundred years
old represent the Father, Virgin, and Holy Child, side by side
with St. George and the Dragon. "In hoc signo vinces" is
inscribed on a reliquary, in which a splinter of the Holy
Cross is kept.
In the centre of the northern side-aisle, on a portable
framework, stands an image of the Holy Virgin, richly arrayed
in a long robe, with a golden crown on her head. Each year
on the Sunday following the 15th of August she is carried in
procession round the town. But this year, when her aid was
so badly needed, she was not carried through the streets of
Antwerp. This year they contented themselves with lighting
tall votive candles before the Queen of Heaven. Yet she
seemingly remained deaf to all prayers ! But a stained-glass
picture in the third window from the left on the northern
side shows a portrait of Emperor Charles V., who severed his
Netherlands from their connection with the Germanic Holy
Roman Empire, leaving the keys of Antwerp in the charge of
this very image of the Virgin. The keys of Antwerp ! It was
" Black Maria "
—and not her white namesake—who had the
handling of them !
The pulpit was carved by van der Voort in solid oak. It is
exactly 200 years old, but perhaps the oaks were 500 years old
already when their wood was dedicated to the preaching of
the Word of God. One likes to pause before this handsome
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