And now began a triumphal progress through the land, with a series of
mighty banquets and festivities, in which no man could play a better part
than Leicester. From Flushing he came to Middelburg, where, upon
Christmas eve (according to the new reckoning), there was an
entertainment, every dish of which has been duly chronicled. Pigs served
on their feet, pheasants in their feathers, and baked swans with their
necks thrust through gigantic pie-crust; crystal castles of confectionery
with silver streams flowing at their base, and fair virgins leaning from
the battlements, looking for their new English champion, "wine in
abundance, variety of all sorts, and wonderful welcomes "--such was the
bill of fare. The next day the Lieutenant-General returned the
compliment to the magistrates of Middelburg with a tremendous feast.
Then came an interlude of unexpected famine; for as the Earl sailed with
his suite in a fleet of two hundred vessels for Dort--a voyage of not
many hours' usual duration--there descended a mighty frozen fog upon the
waters, and they lay five whole days and nights in their ships, almost
starved with hunger and cold--offering in vain a "pound of silver for a
pound of bread." Emerging at last from this dismal predicament, he
landed at Dort, and so went to Rotterdam and Delft, everywhere making his
way through lines of musketeers and civic functionaries, amid roaring
cannon, pealing bells, burning cressets, blazing tar-barrels, fiery
winged dragons, wreaths of flowers, and Latin orations.

The farther he went the braver seemed the country, and the better beloved
his. Lordship. Nothing was left undone, in the language of ancient
chronicle, to fill the bellies and the heads of the whole company. At
the close of the year he came to the Hague, where the festivities were
unusually magnificent. A fleet of barges was sent to escort him. Peter,
James, and John, met him upon the shore, while the Saviour appeared