Excerpt from The White Hoods, Vol. 1 of 3: An Historical Romance The splendour of Bruges was indeed unri valled. In that town alone there were not less than twenty palaces erected for the consuls or masters Of the different trades; and the citizens, with their wives and families, were in the habit Of wearing such costly stuffs, gold, and jewels, that it was commonly said the value Of a royal dower might sometimes be seen upon their backs. A well-known anecdote strikingly illustrates this fact; for when Joanna Of Navarre, the queen of Philip le Bel, visited Bruges, she was so surprised at the magnificent attire Of the ladies of that city, that She exclaimed, I thought that I had been the only queen in Bruges, but here I find all are such. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.