all housed in private dwellings or the warehouses of the merchants. The
inhabitants had already for some days been working hard at their
defences, and the English at once joined them in their labours,
strengthening the weak portions of the walls, mounting cannon upon the
towers, and preparing in all ways to give a warm reception to the
Spaniards.

Captain Vere, his lieutenant and ensign and his two pages, were
quartered in the house of a wealthy merchant, whose family did all in
their power to make them comfortable. It was a grand old house, and the
boys, accustomed as they were to the splendours of Hedingham Castle,
agreed that the simple merchants of the Low Countries were far in
advance of English nobles in the comforts and conveniences of their
dwellings. The walls of the rooms were all heavily panelled; rich
curtains hung before the casements. The furniture was not only richly
carved, but comfortable. Heavy hangings before the doors excluded
draughts, and in the principal apartments Eastern carpets covered the
floors. The meals were served on spotless white linen. Rich plate stood
on the sideboard, and gold and silver vessels of rare carved work from
Italy glittered in the armoires.

Above all, from top to bottom, the house was scrupulously clean. Not a
particle of dust dimmed the brightness of the furniture, and even now,
when the city was threatened with siege, the merchant's wife never
relaxed her vigilance over the doings of her maids, who seemed to the
boys to be perpetually engaged in scrubbing, dusting, and polishing.

"Our mother prides herself on the neatness of her house," Geoffrey
said; "but what would she say, I wonder, were she to see one of these
Dutch households? I fear that the maids would have a hard time of it