oice many others instantly
followed. The grown people too were not silent, and as the procession
approached the town-hall, head-quarters of military companies,
guild-halls or residences of popular men, loud cheers arose, mingled
with the ringing of bells, the shouts of the sailors on both arms of the
Rhine and on the canals, the playing of the city musicians at the street
corners, and the rattle of guns and roar of cannon fired by the gunners
and their assistants from the citadel. It was a joyous tumult in jocund
spring! These merry mortals seemed to lull themselves carelessly in the
secure enjoyment of peace and prosperity, and how blue the sky was, how
warmly and brightly the sun shone! The only grave, anxious faces were
among the magistrates; but the guilds and the children behind did not
see them, so the rejoicings continued without interruption until the
churches received the procession, and words so earnest and full of
warning echoed from the pulpits, that many grew thoughtful.

All three phases of time belong to man, the past to the graybeard, the
future to youth, and the present to childhood. What cared the little
boys and girls of Leyden, released from school during the fair, for
the peril close at hand? Whoever, on the first day and during the great
linen-fair on Friday and the following days, received spending money
from parents or godparents, or whoever had eyes to see, ears to hear,
and a nose to smell, passed through the rows of booths with his or her
companions, stopped before the camels and dancing-bears, gazed into
the open taverns, where not only lads and lasses, but merry old
people whirled in the dance to the music of bagpipes, clarionets and
violins--examined gingerbread and other dainties with the attention
of an expert, or obeyed the blasts of the trumpet, by which the quack
doctor's negro summoned the crowd.

Adrian, the burgomaster's son, also strolled day after day, alone or
with his companions, through the splendors of the fair, often grasping
with the secure sense of wealth the leather purse that hung at his
belt, for it contained several stivers, which had flowed in from various
sources; his father, his mother, Barbara and his godmother. Captain Van
Duivenvoorde, his particular friend, on whose noble horse he had often
ridden, had taken him three times into a wafer booth, where he eat till
he was satisfied, and thus, even on the Tuesday after Ascension-Day, his
little fortune was but slight