blew the long, fair
curls of the good Dutchmen into their eyes, and every now and then
threw the spray at their feet or on their clothes--vain provocations
to which they did not deign to reply even by a frown.

I saw a pile driven into the dyke. It was the trunk of a great tree
pointed at one end and supported by two parallel beams, between which
a steam-engine drove an enormous iron hammer up and down. The pile had
to be driven through several very thick strata of fagots and stones;
yet at every blow from the heavy hammer it sunk into the ground,
breaking, tearing, and splintering, while it entered the dyke more
than a hand's length, as if it were merely a mud hole. Nevertheless,
what with adjusting and driving the pile, the operation lasted almost
an hour. I thought of the thousands that had been driven, of the
thousands still to be driven, of the interminable dykes that defend
Holland, of the infinite number that have been overturned and rebuilt
and for the first time my mind conceived the grandeur of the
undertaking, and a feeling of dismay crept over me as I stood
motionless and speechless.

Meanwhile, the waters had risen almost to the level of the dyke, with
a sound of panting and breathlessness like tired-out voices that
seemed to murmur secrets of distant seas and unknown shores; the wind
blew colder, it was growing dark, and I felt a restless desire to
withdraw from those front bastions into the interior of the fortress.
I pulled the coat-tail of my companion, who had been standing for an
hour on a boulder, and we returned to the shore and drank a glass of
delicious Schiedam at one of those shops which are called in Dutch
"Come and ask," where they sell wines, salt meats, cigars, shoes,
butter, clothes, biscuits--in fact, a little of everything. Then we
started on the road back to the Hague.

My next excursion was the most adventurous that I made in Holland. A
very dear friend of mine who lived at the Hague invited me to go and
dine with him at the house of one of his relatives who had shown a
courteous desire to make my acquaintance. I asked where his relative
lived; and he answered, "Far from the Hague." I asked in what
direction, but he would not tell me; he told me to meet him at the
railway-station the next day, and left me. On the next morning we met
at the station: my friend bought tickets for Leyden. When we arrived
at Leyden we alighted, but, instead of entering the town, we took a
road across cou