ster of France first!" The order was obeyed, and the French
minister had lifted his third spoonful to his lips before the humbled
Prussian had tasted his.

The next day saw couriers flying, extra post through all Europe,
conveying the important intelligence; that when all other precedence
failed, soup, might be resorted to, to test rank and supremacy.

And now enough for the present of ministers ordinary and extraordinary,
envoys and plenipos; though I intend to come back to them at another
opportunity.

CHAPTER V. ANTWERP--"THE FISCHER'S HAUS."

It was through no veneration for the memory of Van Hoogen-dorp's
adventure, that I found myself one morning at Antwerp. I like the old
town: I like its quaint, irregular streets, its glorious cathedral, the
old "Place," with its alleys of trees; I like the Flemish women,
and their long-eared caps; and I like the _table d'hote_ at the "St.
Antoine"--among other reasons, because, being at one o'clock, it affords
a capital argument for a hot supper, at nine.

I do not know how other people may feel, but to me, I must confess, much
of the pleasure the Continent affords me, is destroyed by the jargon of
the "_Commissionnaires_," and the cant of guidebooks. Why is not a man
permitted to sit down before that great picture, "The Descent from the
Cross," and "gaze his fill" on it? Why may he not look till the whole
scene becomes, as it were, acting before him, and all those faces of
grief, of care, of horror, and despair, are graven in his memory, never
to be erased again? Why, I say, may he not study this in tranquillity
and peace, without some coarse, tobacco-reeking fellow, at his elbow,
in a dirty blouse and wooden shoes, explaining, in _patois_ French, the
merits of a work, which he is as well fitted to paint, as to appreciate.

But I must not myself commit the very error I am reprobating. I will not
attempt any description of a picture, which, to those who have seen it,
could realize not one of the impressions the work itself afforded, and
to those who have not, would convey nothing at all. I will not bore
my reader with the tiresome cant of "effect." "expression," "force,"
"depth," and "relief," but, instead of all this, will tell him a short
story about the painting, which, if it has no other merit, has at least
that of authenticity.

Rubens--who, among his other tastes, was a great florist--was very
desirous to enlarge his garden, by adding to it a patch of ground