whole town seemed retired into their inmost chambers; and I kept
winding and turning about, from street to street, and from alley to
alley, without meeting a single inhabitant. Now and then, indeed,
one or two women in long cloaks and mantles glided about at a
distance; but their dress was so shroud-like, and their whole
appearance so ghostly, that I was more than half afraid to accost
them. As the night approached, the ranges of buildings grew more and
more dim, and the silence which reigned amongst them more awful. The
canals, which in some places intersect the streets, were likewise in
perfect solitude, and there was just light sufficient for me to
observe on the still waters the reflection of the structures above
them. Except two or three tapers glimmering through the casements,
no one circumstance indicated human existence. I might, without
being thought very romantic, have imagined myself in the city of
petrified people, which Arabian fabulists are so fond of describing.
Were any one to ask my advice upon the subject of retirement, I
should tell him,--By all means repair to Antwerp. No village amongst
the Alps, or hermitage upon Mount Lebanon, is less disturbed: you
may pass your days in this great city without being the least
conscious of its sixty thousand inhabitants, unless you visit the
churches. There, indeed, are to be heard a few devout whispers, and
sometimes, to be sure, the bells make a little chiming; but walk
about, as I do, in the twilights of midsummer, and be assured your
ears will be free from all molestation.

You can have no idea how many strange, amusing fancies played around
me whilst I wandered along; nor how delighted I was with the novelty
of my situation. But a few days ago, thought I within myself, I was
in the midst of all the tumult and uproar of London: now, as if by
some magic influence, I am transported to a city equally remarkable