which is at once amiable and gentle, simple and affectionate, familiar
and tender, and which meets a quick response from every honest heart and
earnest spirit.

If it be objected that the stories are too short and sketchy for the
praise that has been bestowed on them, it may be answered that in their
translation we have had the best opportunity to observe the skill,
power, and perception of character which constitute their real merit.
Simple as they seem, they are written with masterly art. In design,
elaborateness, tone, and finish, they resemble the works of the Flemish
School which have made us familiar with the Low Countries and their
people through the pictures of Ruysdael, Teniers, and Ostade. There is
scarcely a leaf that does not display some of those recondite or
evanescent secrets of human nature which either escape ordinary writers,
or, when found by them, are spread out over volume instead of being
condensed into a page.

Baltimore, August, 1856.

THE TRANSLATOR.




CHAPTER I.


Near the end of July, 1842, an open _calèche_ might have been seen
rolling along one of the three highways that lead from the frontiers of
Holland toward Antwerp. Although the vehicle had evidently been cleaned