noon
Within its walls were established the agencies of a score of foreign great trading companies , and the ambassadors of no less a number of foreign Powers . Here on a day you might hear every language of civilization spoken in the broad thoroughfares under the shadow of such imposing buildings as you would not have found together in another city of Europe . To the harbour came the richly laden argosies from Venice and Genoa , from Germany and the Baltic , from Constantinople and from England , and in her thronged markets Lombard and Venetian , Levantine , Teuton , and Saxon stood jostling one another to buy and sell . It was past noon , and the great belfry above the Gothic Cloth Hall in the Grande Place was casting a lengthening shadow athwart the crowded square . Above the Babel of voices sounded on a sudden the note of a horn , and there was a cry of `` The Duke ! The Duke ! '' followed by a general scuttle of the multitude to leave a clear way down the middle of the great square .