his castles in Gelderland, and every year
spends some days in Amsterdam. The people say there is a law which
obliges the king to spend ten days during the year at Amsterdam, and
the municipality of that town are obliged to pay his expenses during
those ten days. After midnight of the tenth day even a match that he
may strike to light his cigar is at his own expense.

* * * * *

On returning from the royal villa at the Hague I found the wood
enlivened by the Sunday promenade--music, carriages, a crowd of
ladies, restaurants full of people, and swarms of children everywhere.

Then for the first time I saw the fair sex of Holland. Beauty is a
rare flower in Holland, as in all other countries; notwithstanding, in
a walk of a hundred steps in the wood at the Hague I saw many more
beautiful women than I had seen in all the pictures in the Dutch
galleries. These ladies do not possess the statuesque beauty of the
Romans, the splendid color of the English, nor the vivacity of the
Andalusians; but there is about them a refinement, a delightful
innocence and grace, a tranquil beauty, a pleasing countenance; they
have, as a French writer has rightly said, the attraction of the
valerian flower which ornaments their gardens. They are plump, and
tall rather than short, they have regular features, and smooth
brilliant complexions of a beautiful white and delicate pink--colors
which seem to have been suffused by the breath of an angel; they have
high cheek-bones; their eyes are light blue, sometimes very light, and
sometimes of a glassy appearance, which gives them a vague, wandering
look. It is said that their teeth are not good, but this I could not
confirm, as they seldom laugh. They walk more heavily than the French
and not so stiffly as the English; they dress in the Parisian mode,
and the ladies at the Hague display better taste than those at
Amsterdam, although they do not dress so richly: they all display
their masses of fair hair with considerable pride.

I was astonished to see girls who appeared to be fully grown, who in
our country would have had the airs and attire of women, still dressed
like children, with short skirts and white pantalettes. In Holland,
where life is easy and impatience an unknown experience, the girls are
in no hurry to leave off the ways and appearance of childhood, and, on
the other hand, they seem naturally to enter at a comparatively late
age that period of life whe