eceived them, half shamefaced in his "swallow-tail"; how,
not long before we arrived at the University, Jan had gone through his
torture in the "sweating-room," and before the examiners with his
relatives present; how the ladies, after seeing the town, had been
ungallantly packed off home, before the best fun began. How Jan had
returned, to cast away his evening things at the time when most people
think of putting them on, and rush to the Students' Club in morning
dress. How his Paranymphs and friends had met him, and at a big round
table--soon to be covered with glasses--the Professors' servant (called
"Pedel" of the University) had handed the new Doctor his official
appointment, in return for a fee of ten gulden. How the dinner had begun
in speech-making and music, with an adjournment after the first part, to
the garden for coffee, liqueurs, and cigars; how, when the table had
been cleared and rearranged, everybody had marched back to risk their
lives by eating lobster and quantities of indigestible things. How Jan
would then have had to make his "palaver," thanking his friends for
their speeches in his honor; and how, while he was speaking, the waiters
would be placing a large napkin at the plate of each man--a mere napkin,
but destined for an outlandish purpose. "By this time," I went on
mysteriously, "those napkins are fulfilling their destiny, and if you
would like to see what it is, you've only to follow me."

They were on their feet in an instant. We scrambled down the narrow
stairs, and out into the starlit night. Leiden was a city of the dead.
Not even a dog played sentinel for the sleeping townsfolk; not a cat
sprang out of the shadows as I led my band through a labyrinth of
canal-streets, floored as if with jet nailed down with stars. But
suddenly the spell of silence was broken by an explosion of sound which
crashed into it like breaking glass. A brassy blare of music that could
not drown young men's laughter, burst on us so unexpectedly that the
three ladies gave starts, and stifled cries. I stopped them at a corner,
and we huddled into the shadow, flattened against a wall.

"The Napkins are coming!" I said, and I had not got the words out before
the blue darkness was aflame with the red light of streaming torches, a
wild light which matched the band music. There was a trampling of feet,
and in the midst of smoke and ruddy flare sequined with flying sparks,
came torch-bearers and musicians, led by one man