ntry. I besought my companion to reveal the secret to
me. He answered that he could not do so, and as I knew that when a
Dutchman does not mean to tell you anything, no power on earth will
make him do it, I resigned myself. It was a disagreeable day in
February; there was no snow, but a strong cold wind was blowing which
soon made our faces purple. As it was Sunday, the country was
deserted. We went on and on, passing windmills, canals, meadows,
houses half hidden by trees, with very high roofs of stubble mixed
with moss. Finally we arrived at a village. The Dutch villages are
closed by a palisade: we passed through the gate, but not a living
soul was to be seen; the doors were shut, the window curtains were
drawn, and not a voice, nor a footstep, nor a breath was heard. We
crossed the village, and paused in front of a church which was all
covered with ivy like a summer-house; looking through an aperture in
the door, we saw a Protestant clergyman with a white cravat preaching
to some peasants whose faces were striped with gold, green, and
purple, the reflection of the stained-glass windows. We passed
through a clean street paved with bricks, and saw stakes put for the
storks' nests, posts planted by the peasants for the cows to rub
against, fences painted sky blue, small houses with many-colored tiles
forming letters and words, ponds full of boats, bridges, kiosks for
unknown uses, little churches with great gilded cocks on the top of
their steeples; and not a living soul near or far: still we went on.
The sky cleared a little, then darkened again; here the sunshine
gleamed on a canal, there it made a house sparkle or gilded a distant
steeple. Then again it hid itself, reappeared, and so on with a
thousand coquetries, while on the horizon there appeared oblique lines
denoting rain. We began to meet countrywomen with circles of gold
round their heads, on which veils were fastened, the whole surmounted
by hats; these were trimmed with bunches of flowers and wide
fluttering ribbons. We also met some country carriages of the antique
Louis XV. style, with a gilded box ornamented with carved work and
mirrors, peasants with thick black clothes and large wooden shoes,
children with stockings of every color in the rainbow. We arrived at
another village, which was clean, shining, and brightly colored, with
its streets paved with bricks and its windows adorned with curtains
and flowers. Here we took a carriage and went on our way.