Maid in the Forestdetails

One of the very largest in all the country is this forest of Saint Hubert.

Reaching from Liège southwards to the frontier of France stretches this great forest, dotted with cities and villages, and cut by deep wooded valleys through which charming rivers wind. There is still a stretch between Marche and La Roche which is unbroken wildwood, and herein lies the veritable forest (so it is said) of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. It is still something of a terra incognita, and is thus most attractive.

Saint Hubert, too, is an interesting figure of a swash-buckling, profane, careless knight of the profligate court of Pepin, who thought but little of his soul, spent his days in hunting wild game, and his nights in the pursuit of certain more gentle sports, if the chronicle saith truly, to the great scandal of the clergy and the church.

Every schoolboy knows the story of how he came upon the haloed stag in the forest, bearing between its branching antlers the golden crucifix, and such was the character and recklessness of this braggart that even then his slow wits refused to credit the divine miracle. It is said that he rode furiously up the bank to give the noble creature the fatal thrust with his lance, and it was only when the mystic voice warned him of his sinful life that he dismounted and knelt before the apparition, vowing to reform and enter a monastery. This, indeed, he did, and finally, as we know, became Bishop of Tongres [...]

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