Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates
Page 28
XXV
LEYDEN
The boys met at the Museum, and were soon engaged in examining itsextensive collection of curiosities, receiving a new insight intoEgyptian life ancient and modern. Ben and Lambert had often visited theBritish Museum, but that did not prevent them from being surprised atthe richness of the Leyden collection. There were household utensils,wearing apparel, weapons, musical instruments, sarcophagi, and mummiesof men, women, and cats, ibexes and other creatures. They saw a massivegold armlet that had been worn by an Egyptian King at a time when someof these same mummies, perhaps, were nimbly treading the streets ofThebes; and jewels and trinkets such as Pharaoh's daughter wore, and thechildren of Israel borrowed when they departed out of Egypt.
There were other interesting relics, from Rome and Greece, and somecurious Roman pottery which had been discovered in digging near theHague--relics of the days when the countrymen of Julius Caesar hadsettled there. Where have they not settled? I for one would hardly beastonished if relics of the ancient Romans should some day be found deepunder the grass growing round the Bunker-hill monument.
When the boys left this Museum, they went to another and saw a wonderfulcollection of fossil animals, skeletons, birds, minerals, preciousstones and other natural specimens, but as they were not learned men,they could only walk about and stare, enjoy the little knowledge ofnatural history they possessed, and wish with all their hearts they hadacquired more. Even the skeleton of the mouse puzzled Jacob. Whatwonder? He was not used to seeing the cat-fearing little creaturesrunning about in their bones--and how could he ever have imagined theirnecks to be so queer?
Besides the Museum of Natural History, there was Saint Peter's Church tobe visited, containing Professor Luzac's Memorial, and Boerhaave'sMonument of white and black marble, with its urn and carved symbols ofthe four ages of life, and its medallion of Boerhaave, adorned with hisfavorite motto "Simplex sigillum veri." They also obtained admittance toa tea-garden, which in summer was a favorite resort of the citizens, andpassing naked oaks and fruit-trees, ascended a high mound which stood inthe centre. This was the site of a round tower now in ruins, said bysome to have been built by Hengist the Anglo Saxon king, and by othersto have been the castle of one of the ancient counts of Holland.
As the boys walked about on the top of its stone wall, they could getbut a poor view of the surrounding city. The tower stood higher when,more than two centuries ago, the inhabitants of beleaguered Leydenshouted to the watcher on its top their wild, despairing cries--"Isthere any help? Are the waters rising? What do you see?"
And for months he could only answer--"No help. I see around us nothingbut the enemy."
Ben pushed these thoughts away; and resolutely looking down into thebare tea-garden, filled it in imagination with gay summer groups. Hetried to forget old battle-clouds, and picture only curling wreaths oftobacco-smoke, rising from among men, women and children enjoying theirtea and coffee in the open air. But a tragedy came in spite of him.
Poot was bending over the edge of the high wall. It would be just likehim to grow dizzy and tumble off. Ben turned impatiently away. If thefellow with his weak head knew no better than to be venturesome, why,let him tumble. Horror! what meant that heavy, crashing sound?
Ben could not stir. He could only gasp:
"Jacob!"
"Jacob!" cried another startled voice and another. Ready to faint, Benmanaged to turn his head. He saw a crowd of boys on the edge of the wallopposite--but Jacob was not there!
"Good Heaven!" he cried, springing forward, "where is my cousin?"
The crowd parted. It was only four boys, after all. There sat Jacob intheir midst, holding his sides and laughing heartily.
"Did I frighten you all?" he said in his native Dutch. "Well, I willtell you how it was. There was a big stone lying on the wall and I putmy--my foot out just to push it a little, you see--and the first thing Iknew, down went the stone all the way to the bottom, and left me sittinghere on top with both my feet in the air. If I had not thrown myselfback at that moment, I certainly should have rolled over after thestone. Well, it is no matter. Help me up, boys."
"You are hurt, Jacob!" said Ben, seeing a shade of seriousness pass overhis cousin's face as they lifted him to his feet.
Jacob tried to laugh again. "Oh, no--I feels little hurt ven I stant up,but it ish no matter."
* * * * *
The monument to Van der Werf in the Hooglandsche Kerk was not accessiblethat day; but the boys spent a few pleasant moments in the Stadhuis orTown Hall, a long irregular structure somewhat in the Gothic style,uncouth in architecture, but picturesque from age. Its little steeple,tuneful with bells, seemed to have been borrowed from some otherbuilding and hastily clapped on as a finishing touch.
Ascending the grand staircase the boys soon found themselves in rather agloomy apartment, containing the masterpiece of Lucas van Leyden, orHugens, a Dutch artist, born three hundred and seventy years ago, whopainted well when he was ten years of age, and became distinguished inart when only fifteen. This picture, called the Last Judgment,considering the remote age in which it was painted, is truly aremarkable production. The boys, however, were less interested intracing out the merits of the work, than they were in the fact of itsbeing a triptych--that is, painted on three divisions, the two outerones swung on hinges so as to close, when required, over the mainportion.
The historical pictures by Harel de Moor and other famous Dutch artistsinterested them for a while, and Ben had to be almost pulled away fromthe dingy old portrait of Van der Werf.
The Town Hall, as well as the Egyptian Museum, is on the Breede Straat,the longest and finest street in Leyden. It has no canal running throughit, and the houses, painted in every variety of color, have apicturesque effect as they stand with their gable ends to the street;some are very tall, with half of their height in their step-like roofs;others crouch before the public edifices and churches. Being clean,spacious, well-shaded and adorned with many elegant mansions, itcompares favorably with the finer portions of Amsterdam. It is keptscrupulously neat; many of the gutters are covered with boards that openlike trap-doors; and it is supplied with pumps surmounted with shiningbrass ornaments kept scoured and bright at the public cost. The city isintersected by numerous water-roads formed by the river Rhine, theregrown sluggish, fatigued by its long travel; but more than one hundredand fifty stone bridges reunite the dissevered streets. The sameworld-renowned river, degraded from the beautiful, free-flowing Rhine,serves as a moat around the rampart that surrounds Leyden, and iscrossed by draw-bridges at the imposing gateways that give access to thecity. Fine broad promenades, shaded by noble trees, border the canals,and add to the retired appearance of the houses behind, heightening theeffect of scholastic seclusion that seems to pervade the place.
Ben as he scanned the buildings on the Rapenburg canal, was somewhatdisappointed in the appearance of the great University of Leyden. Butwhen he recalled its history--how, attended with all the pomp of a grandcivic display, it had been founded by the Prince of Orange as a tributeto the citizens for the bravery displayed during the siege; when heremembered the great men in religion, learning and science who had oncestudied there, and thought of the hundreds of students now sharing thebenefits of its classes and its valuable scientific museums--he wasquite willing to forego architectural beauty, though, he could not helpfeeling that no amount of it could have been misplaced on such aninstitution.
Peter and Jacob regarded the building with even a deeper, more practicalinterest, for they were to enter it as students, in the course of a fewmonths.
"Poor Don Quixote would have run a hopeless tilt in this part of theworld," said Ben, after Lambert had been pointing out some of theoddities and beauties of the suburbs--"it is all windmills. You rememberhis terrific contest with one, I suppose."
"No," said Lambert, bluntly.
"Well, I don't either, that is, not definitely. But there was somethingof that kind in his adventures, and if ther
e wasn't, there should havebeen--Look at them, how frantically they whirl their great arms--justthe thing to excite the crazy knight to mortal combat. It bewilders oneto look at them; help me to count all those we can see, Van Mounen. Iwant a big item for my note-book"--and after a careful reckoning,superintended by all the party, Master Ben wrote in pencil, "Saw,Dec.,--184-- ninety-eight windmills within full view of Leyden."
He would have been glad to visit the old brick mill in which the painterRembrandt was born; but he abandoned the project upon learning that itwould take them out of their way. Few boys as hungry as Ben was by thistime, would hesitate long between Rembrandt's home a mile off, andtiffin close by. Ben chose the latter.
After tiffin, they rested a while, and then--took another, which, forform sake, they called dinner. After dinner the boys sat warmingthemselves, at the inn; all but Peter, who occupied the time in anotherfruitless search for Dr. Boekman.
This over, the party once more prepared for skating. They were thirteenmiles from the Hague and not as fresh as when they had left Broek earlyon the previous day; but they were in good spirits and the ice wasexcellent.