with Rhine water. But now, as it was winter, near to Christmas indeed,
the meadows and the quaint gabled roofs of the city lay buried beneath
a dazzling sheet of snow, while, instead of boats and barges, skaters
glided up and down the frozen surface of the canals, which were swept
for their convenience. Outside the walls of the town, not far from the
Morsch poort, or gate, the surface of the broad moat which surrounded
them presented a sight as gay as it was charming. Just here one of
the branches of the Rhine ran into this moat, and down it came the
pleasure-seekers in sledges, on skates, or afoot. They were dressed,
most of them, in their best attire, for the day was a holiday set apart
for a kind of skating carnival, with sleighing matches, such games as
curling, and other amusements.

Among these merry folk might have been seen a young lady of two or three
and twenty years of age, dressed in a coat of dark green cloth trimmed
with fur, and close-fitting at the waist. This coat opened in front,
showing a broidered woollen skirt, but over the bust it was tightly
buttoned and surmounted by a stiff ruff of Brussels lace. Upon her head
she wore a high-crowned beaver hat, to which the nodding ostrich feather
was fastened by a jewelled ornament of sufficient value to show that she
was a person of some means. In fact, this lady was the only child of a
sea captain and shipowner named Carolus van Hout, who, whilst still a
middle-aged man, had died about a year before, leaving her heiress to a
very considerable fortune. This circumstance, with the added advantages
of a very pretty face, in which were set two deep and thoughtful grey
eyes, and a figure more graceful than was common among the Netherlander
women, caused Lysbeth van Hout to be much sought after and admired,
especially by the marriageable bachelors of Leyden.

On this occasion, however, she was unescorted except by a serving woman