2nd, 1608, of the marriage of Hugo Grotius with
Maria Reygersbergh of Veere, whom we have seen at Loevenstein assisting
in her husband's escape from prison. The museum is in the charge of a
blond custodian, a descendant of sea kings, whose pride in the golden
goblet which Maximilian of Burgundy, Veere's first Marquis, gave to
the town in 1551, is almost paternal. He displays it as though it
were a sacred relic, and narrates the story of Veere's indignation
when a millionaire attempted to buy it, so feelingly as to fortify
and complete one's suspicions that money after all is but dross and
the love of it the root of evil.

Chapter XX

Flushing

Middelburg once more--The Flushing baths--Shrimps and
chivalry--A Dutch boy--Charles V. at Souburg--Flushing
and the Spanish yoke--Philip and William the Silent--The
capture of Brill--A far-reaching drunken impulse--Flushing's
independence--Admiral de Ruyter--England's Revenge--The
Middelburg kermis--The aristocracy of avoirdupois--The end.

It is wiser I think to stay at Middelburg and visit Flushing from
there than to stay at Flushing. One may go by train or tram. In
hot weather the steam-tram is the better way, for then one can go
direct to the baths and bathe in the stillest arm of the sea that
I know. Here I bathed on the hottest day of last year, 1904, among
merry albeit considerable water nymphs and vivacious men. These I
found afterwards should have dwelt in the water for ever, for they
emerged, dried and dressed, from the machines, something less than
ordinary Batavians. I perhaps carried disillusionment also.

For safe bathing the Flushing baths could not well be excelled, but
I never knew shore so sandy. To rid one's self of sand is almost an
impossibility. With each step it over-tops one's boots.

Returning to Middelburg from Flushing one evening, in the steam-tram,
we found ourselves in a compartment filled with happy country
people, most of them making for the kermis, then in full swing in
the Middelburg market place. A pedlar of shrimps stood by the door
retailing little pennyworths, and nothing would do but the countryman
opposite me must buy some for his sweetheart. When he had bought them
he was for emptying them in her lap, but I tendered the wrapper of my
book just in time: an act of civility which brought out all his native
friendliness. He offered us shrimps, one by one, first peeling them
with kindly fingers of extraordina