till high noon, at this cold season of the year."

The conference of the two city ladies was here interrupted by the entrance of the steward, followed by Katryn, who had been watching at one of the upper windows of the tower, to announce the approach of the royal guest. "The King, Mynheer," said the steward, but could proceed no further, as Katryn caught up his words, and continued, "is within a pistol shot of the tower gate, so ye had better run to the port, Mynheer, and if you do not move quickly, he'll be in the court, before you know he is o'er the bridge."

The whole party hastened with all possible speed to the entrance court, and arrived there at the very moment that the travelling carriage of his Majesty drew up. The Magistrates bending their unwieldy forms as low and gracefully as their size permitted, advanced to assist him, and in a few

moments escorted him into the principal apartment, where the ladies smiling and bowing, paid their respects to the head of the house of Orange.

The lips of the ladies received the honour of the royal salute, and his Majesty condescended to remark, that they were sweeter than all the suikerkollen in Amsterdam. A royal compliment is always well received, and the vanity of each of the assembled ladies was gratified by this of the Monarch.

The King was seated at a table placed at the upper end of the apartment, profusely covered with viands of every description. Aaltje prepared to assist the monarch with tea, coffee, and chocolate, while Vander Dordrecht and Huyp stood on either side to administer to the wants of the royal appetite.

Aaltje was likewise standing, but the King, gallantly rising from the chair which he occupied, commanded her to

be seated, observing that it was not proper to allow the fair hostess, in her own house, to stand whilst he took his breakfast.

Aaltje curtsied and blushed deeply, then casting her eye around her with a look expressive of proud exultation, obeyed the injunction of the prince. She now felt that she enjoyed a complete triumph, and the countenances of the ladies sufficiently proved the mortification that filled their hearts.

"You have the fairest vrouw of the city, Mynheer," said the King, addressing himself to Vander Dordrecht, "and we must express our hopes to behold her at our court, ere long. A more loyal and worthy subject than yourself we have not in our dominions, and trust me our court boasts not of a lovelier lady."

"Was the like ever known?" exclaimed the ladies who had previously

been indulging their propensity to scandal at the expense of Aaltje. "The creature has positively conquered the heart of the King! Ill betide the marotje; if she goes on at this rate, we may as well betake ourselves at once to a cloister."

66

Your Majesty," said Vander Dordrecht, with a low obeisance to his illustrious guest, "honors your poor subject too highly. But would your Majesty deign to take this jongeling, whom I would, in all humility, crave permission to introduce as my son, under your gracious protection, and make him a pagie in your Majesty's suite, you would find Huyp as loyal as his father."

Yaw," interrupted Aaltje, and, please your Majesty, Huyp is a lad of talent, as Madame Kikvorsch, and the whole city of Amsterdam can avouch."

"We should ill repay the kind atten

tions of our lovely hostess," replied the King, "were we to refuse to grant her request. Therefore we here appoint him our page of the presence, for to doubt that he is worthy of the situation would be worse than heresy."

The King bowed to Aaltje as he delivered this speech, and was apparently far from being insensible to the attractions of her charms.

Huyp at the instigation of his father bent on one knee and returned thanks to the monarch, for the honor he had conferred upon him, and for the first time in his life felt his bosom swell with the heavings of ambition. A new sensation seemed to thrill through his veins, and he considered himself as the most fortunate of human beings. At different periods of life our ideas undergo a sensible change. The baubles which please us in infancy delight us not in youth, and what we were wont