with toys and looking-glasses. It was not without difficulty that we
reached our inn, and then the plague was to procure chambers; at last
we were accommodated, and the first moment I could call my own has
been dedicated to you.

You won't be surprised at the nonsense I have written, since I tell
you the scene of the riot and uproar from whence it bears date. At
this very moment the confused murmur of voices and music stops all
regular proceedings: old women and children tattling; apes, bears,
and show-boxes under the windows; French rattling, English swearing,
outrageous Italians, frisking minstrels; tambours de basque at every
corner; myself distracted; a confounded squabble of cooks and
haranguing German couriers just arrived, their masters following
open-mouthed; nothing to eat, the steam of ham and flesh-pots all the
while provoking their appetite; Mynheers very busy with the
realities, and smoking as deliberately as if in a solitary lusthuys
over the laziest canal in the Netherlands; squeaking chambermaids in
the galleries above, and prudish dames below, half inclined to
receive the golden solicitations of certain beauties for admittance,
but positively refusing them the moment some creditable personage
appears; eleven o'clock strikes; half the lights in the fair are
extinguished; scruples grow less and less delicate; Mammon prevails,
darkness and complaisance succeed. Good-night; may you sleep better
than I shall.



LETTER VI