but rather, perhaps, to avoid being surprised by the numerous
and mutinous population of the city, had established his residence in his
beautiful Castle of Schonwaldt, about a mile without Liege.
    Just as they approached the Castle, they saw the Prelate returning in long
procession from the neighbouring city, in which he had been officiating at the
performance of High Mass. He was at the head of a splendid train of religious,
civil, and military men, mingled together, or, as the old ballad-maker expresses
it,
 
»With many a cross-bearer before,
And many a spear behind.«
 
The procession made a noble appearance, as, winding along the verdant banks of
the broad Maes, it wheeled into, and was as it were devoured by, the huge Gothic
portal of the Episcopal residence.
    But when the party came more near, they found that circumstances around the
Castle argued a doubt and sense of insecurity, which contradicted that display
of pomp and power which they had just witnessed. Strong guards of the Bishop's
soldiers were heedfully maintained all around the mansion and its immediate
vicinity; and the prevailing appearances in an ecclesiastical residence, seemed
to argue a sense of danger in the reverend Prelate, who found it necessary thus
to surround himself with all the defensive precautions of war. The Ladies of
Croye, when announced by Quentin, were reverently ushered into the great Hall,
where they met with the most cordial reception from the Bishop, who met them
there at the head of his little Court. He would not permit them to kiss his
hand, but welcomed them with a salute, which had something in it of gallantry on
the part of a prince to fine women, and something also of the holy affection of
a pastor to the sisters of his flock.
    Louis of Bourbon, the reigning Bishop of Liege, was in truth a generous and
kind-hearted prince; whose life had not indeed been always confined, with
precise strictness, within the bounds of his clerical profession; but who,
notwithstanding, had uniformly maintained the frank and honourable character of
the House of Bourbon, from which he was descended.
    In later times, as age advanced, the Prelate had adopted habits more
beseeming a member of the hierarchy than his early reign had exhibited, and was
loved among the neighbouring princes, as a noble ecclesiastic, generous and
magnificent in his ordinary mode of life, though preserving no very ascetic
severity of character, and governing with an easy indifference, which, amid his
wealthy and mutinous subjects, rather encouraged than subdued rebellious
purposes.
    The Bishop was so fast an ally