ry blackness, and we ate enough to
satisfy him that we meant well: and then just as we reached Middelburg,
he gave me a cigar and walked all the way to the Abbey with me,
watching me smoke it. It was an ordeal; but I hope, for the honour
of England, that I carried it through successfully and convinced him
that an Englishman knows what to do with courtesy when he finds it.

In the same tram and on the very next seat to us was the pleasantest
little boy that I think I ever saw: a perfect miniature Dutchman,
with wide black trousers terminating in a point, pearl buttons,
a tight black coat, a black hat, and golden neck links after the
Zeeland habit. He was perhaps four, plump and red and merry, and his
mother, who nursed his baby sister, was immensely proud of him. Some
one pressed a twopenny bit into his hand as he left the car, and I
watched him telling the great news to half a dozen of the women who
were waiting by the side of the road, while his face shone like the
setting sun.

They got off at Souburg, the little village between Flushing and
Middelburg where Charles V. was living in 1556, after his abdication,
before he sailed for his last home. It is odd to have two such
associations with Souburg--the weary emperor putting off the purple,
and the little Dutch boer bursting jollily through black velvet.

Flushing played a great part in the great war. It was from Flushing
that Charles V. sailed in 1556; from Flushing that Philip II. sailed in
1559; neither to return. It was Flushing that heard Philip's farewell
to William of Orange, which in the light of after events may be called
the declaration of war that was to release the Netherlands from the
tyranny of Spain and Rome. "As Philip was proceeding on board the ship
which was to bear him for ever from the Netherlands, his eyes lighted
upon the Prince. His displeasure could no longer be restrained. With
angry face he turned upon him, and bitterly reproached him for having
thwarted all his plans by means of his secret intrigues. William
replied with humility that everything which had taken place had been
done through the regular and natural movements of the states. Upon
this the King, boiling with rage, seized the Prince by the wrist,
and, shaking it violently, exclaimed in Spanish, 'No los estados,
ma vos, vos, vos!'--Not the estates, but you, you, you!--repeating
thrice the word 'vos,' which is as disrespectful and uncourteous in
Spain as 'toi' in French."

That