ers instantly followed. The grown
people too were not silent, and as the procession approached the
town-hall, head-quarters of military companies, guild-halls or residences
of popular men, loud cheers arose, mingled with the ringing of bells, the
shouts of the sailors on both arms of the Rhine and on the canals, the
playing of the city musicians at the street corners, and the rattle of
guns and roar of cannon fired by the gunners and their assistants from
the citadel. It was a joyous tumult in jocund spring! These merry mortals
seemed to lull themselves carelessly in the secure enjoyment of peace and
prosperity, and how blue the sky was, how warmly and brightly the sun
shone! The only grave, anxious faces were among the magistrates; but the
guilds and the children behind did not see them, so the rejoicings
continued without interruption until the churches received the
procession, and words so earnest and full of warning echoed from the
pulpits, that many grew thoughtful.

All three phases of time belong to man, the past to the graybeard, the
future to youth, and the present to childhood. What cared the little boys
and girls of Leyden, released from school during the fair, for the peril
close at hand? Whoever, on the first day and during the great linen-fair
on Friday and the following days, received spending money from parents or
godparents, or whoever had eyes to see, ears to hear, and a nose to
smell, passed through the rows of booths with his or her companions,
stopped before the camels and dancing-bears, gazed into the open taverns,
where not only lads and lasses, but merry old people whirled in the dance
to the music of bagpipes, clarionets and violins--examined gingerbread
and other dainties with the attention of an expert, or obeyed the blasts
of the trumpet, by which the quack doctor's negro summoned the crowd.

Adrian, the burgomaster's son, also strolled day after day, alone or with
his companions, through the splendors of the fair, often grasping with
the secure sense of wealth the leather purse that hung at his belt, for
it contained several stivers, which had flowed in from various sources;
his father, his mother, Barbara and his godmother. Captain Van
Duivenvoorde, his particular friend, on whose noble horse he had often
ridden, had taken him three times into a wafer booth, where he eat till
he was satisfied, and thus, even on the Tuesday after Ascension-Day, his
little fortune was but slightly diminished.