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Updated: May 3, 2025
Did you not remark, brother Henry, that while you stood carried away by your enthusiasm before Rembrandt's picture of the 'Night Watch' a picture which it grieves me to say I cannot obtain," sighed the king "these proud Hollanders call it one of their national treasures, and will not sell it well, did you not see that I was conversing zealously with three or four of those thick, rubicund, comfortable looking mynheers?
Perhaps even you should know him in his overalled, stubble-bearded days, with the rich black loam of the Mississippi bottom-lands clinging to his boots. At twenty-five, given a tasselled cap, doublet and hose, and a long, slim pipe, Ben Westerveld would have been the prototype of one of those rollicking, lusty young mynheers that laugh out at you from a Frans Hals canvas.
He merely said, "They are Frenchmen, lads; but I'm sure that will make no difference to any of us." "I should think not, whether they're Mynheers or Mounseers," cried Ben. "They're drowning, and want our help; so, whether enemies or friends, we'll try to haul as many of the poor fellows ashore as we can get hold of, and give them dry jackets, and a warm welcome afterwards. Slack away, mates!"
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.
My grandfather made a bow to the motley assemblage as he entered, and having undressed himself, placed his light in the fire-place, asking pardon of the tongs, which seemed to be making love to the shovel in the chimney corner, and whispering soft nonsense in its ear. The rest of the guests were by this time sound asleep; for your Mynheers are huge sleepers.
So, sure enough, in a little while it seemed as if a legion of imps were twitching at him and all the blood in his veins was in fever heat. He lay still, however, until all the house was quiet, excepting the snoring of the Mynheers from the different chambers; who answered one another in all kinds of tones and cadences, like so many bull-frogs in a swamp.
"Ho, Mynheer Henry Ware," replied Cornelius Heemskerk in a loud, clear tone, "I am in your woods on perhaps the same errand that you are. Come from behind that beech and let us see which has the stronger grip." Henry stood forth, and the two clasped hands in a grip so powerful that both winced. Then they released hands simultaneously, and Heemskerk asked: "And the other four mynheers?
Higgs!" exclaimed Hans. "Did you say Higgs? We've found him! I must be off." "You see, young masters." The dame was panting, at the same time snatching Hans's hat from the bed, "you see we know him. He's our no, he isn't. I mean oh, Hans, you must go to Amsterdam this minute!" "Good night, mynheers," panted Hans, radiant with sudden joy. "Good night. You will excuse me, I must go.
Very like you all know Bruges, gentlemen, a queer, old-fashioned Flemish town, once they say a great place for trade and money-making, in old times, when the Mynheers were in their glory; but almost as large and as empty as an Irishman's pocket at the present day. Well, gentlemen, it was the time of the annual fair.
"If the mynheers do not wish to be made prisoners, they had better be out of the village as soon as they can saddle up," he said. "I caught sight of a party of horsemen just passing the border of the Meer where the willows grow; there must have been a dozen of them or more; but I only stopped to count thus far and then took to my heels, expecting every moment to have a shot whistle by my ears."
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