k the
other arm; and so the two young things went downcast and conscious, and
propped the eagle along in silence.

They entered Rotterdam by the Schiedamze Poort; and, as Gerard was
unacquainted with the town, Peter directed him the way to the Hooch
Straet, in which the Stadthouse was. He himself was going with Margaret
to his cousin, in the Ooster-Waagen Straet, so, almost on entering the
gate, their roads lay apart. They bade each other a friendly adieu, and
Gerard dived into the great town. A profound sense of solitude fell upon
him, yet the streets were crowded. Then he lamented too late that, out
of delicacy, he had not asked his late companions who they were and
where they lived.

"Beshrew my shamefacedness!" said he. "But their words and their
breeding were above their means, and something did whisper me they would
not be known. I shall never see her more. Oh weary world, I hate you and
your ways. To think I must meet beauty and goodness and learning--three
pearls of price--and never see them more!"

Falling into this sad reverie, and letting his body go where it would,
he lost his way; but presently meeting a crowd of persons all moving in
one direction, he mingled with them, for he argued they must be making
for the Stadthouse. Soon the noisy troop that contained the moody Gerard
emerged, not upon the Stadthouse, but upon a large meadow by the side of
the Maas; and then the attraction was revealed. Games of all sorts
were going on: wrestling, the game of palm, the quintain, legerdemain,
archery, tumbling, in which art, I blush to say, women as well as men
performed, to the great delectation of the company. There was also a
trained bear, who stood on his head, and marched upright, and bowed with
prodigious gravity to his master; and a hare that beat a drum, and a
cock that strutted on little stilts disdainfully. These things made
Gerard laugh now and then; but the gay scene could not really enliven
it, for his heart was not in tune with it. So hearing a young man say
to his fellow that the Duke had been in the meadow, but was gone to
the Stadthouse to entertain the burgomasters and aldermen and the
competitors for the prizes, and their friends, he suddenly remembered
he was hungry, and should like to sup with a prince. He left the
river-side, and this time he found the Hooch Straet, and it speedily led
him to the Stadthouse. But when he got there he was refused, first
at one door, then at another, till he cam