who had made such short way from the skiff to the audi ence-room, now stepped, or rather bounded forward, and advanced towards the stately couple, threw aside his cloak, took off his bonnet, and dropped on one knee. The quick sight of maternal love could not for a moment be dimmed by doubt. Vrowe Bona, forgetting every thing but the hearty-yearning which for seven long years had been drawing her insensibly to this happy moment, started from her seat, as though an effigy had sprung from its pedestal, and indifferent to tippet, wimple, or kirtle, she threw herself into the open arms of her son, and kissed him, hugged him, and cried over him, in all the grace of natural illbreeding.

Whether it is that a father's memory is not so prompt to recognise his child, or that the pride of a Zealand gentleman and a Kabblejaw triumphed over the parent's feelings, Floris Van Borselen did not follow his wife's example, but sat still in his arm chair, while she blubbered forth her welcomings, and stifled the replies that the affectionate youth in vain essayed to utter. During this struggle it was, however, evident that the chieftain knew his son, and that decorum held a terrible tussle with delight. His body moved not, but his knees shook, his hands convulsively grasped the arms of the chair, his mouth was drawn down, his lips quivered, his eyes winked, and his whole countenance displayed that ineffably ludicrous expression which one sometimes sees in the weeping cherubs of a monument. Young Vrank saw his father's constrained emotion, and succeeded in approaching close enough to take the outstretched hand, which, for all its nervous straining, trembled as the youth respectfully pressed it to his lips. But the mother never quitted her son, but clung to him at the other side, and made him in fact, what a dutiful child morally is, the true link that joins its parents in a chain of love.

At this moment a perfect tumult was raised in the ante chamber, and even at the very door of the sanctum, where no sounds but the measured accents of etiquette were ever before known to enter. A group of four or five children, boys and girls from the age of fifteen down to ten, had gathered in the corridor on hearing the arrival of their Long-wished for brother Vrank. The servitors too, old fol

lowers of the family, and more recent reinforcements to the household, who had all known or heard of their young lord's fine qualities, unable to resist the children's example, crowded after them and pressed forward; while the old governess, in her sendell coif and black hood, and the older chamberlain with grey head and wide breeches, threw their bodies as a rampart between their lord's privacy and the boisterous intruders, and spread their arms across the door-way to block up the passage.

"Let them all in, let them all in!" cried Floris Van Borselen, springing up on his feet and throwing his arms round his son's neck. "Let there be holiday and jubilee to all within sight of the weather-cock on the tower!Oh!" continued he, as the children and servants rushed in, jumping, shouting, laughing, and weeping for joy, "Oh, that I, too, could dance and cry!"

With the lightning's speed the joyous feeling ran through the castle. The rough watchman on the rampart, the guards at the gate, and the grooms in the court-yard, all caught the impulsion. The artillery sent out successive peals across the strait to the main-land beyond; and the very ban-dogs in the fosse seemed to howl in a unison of fierce but thrilling welcome, such as the grey walls of Eversdyke had not rung with for years.

CHAPTER VI.

THE Scene just described will be evidence of the good reason which Vrank Van Borselen had to love and reverence his parents, who, let their peculiar dispositions be what they might, united much of that tenderness which was common to the unpolished but kindly people of Zealand. Vrank still remembered, in their fullest force, and was in a great degree ready to act on, the early notions of obedience which his father's very name inspired; nor had. all the acquired polish of manner, which between six and seven years' service under the Duke of Burgundy had grafted on his natural refinement of thought, weakened

the influence of the associations which attached him to the land of his early youth. Yet he could not sympathize with the rude prejudices of the country he now visited after so long an interval, even though his father was most deeply imbued with them. He considered the social state of the people as little removed from barbarism, and he looked on their savage and ignoble feuds as a perfect solecism, in an age when chivalry flourished elsewhere, in all the seducing brilliancy of fierce, yet elegant warfare. was revolted by the recollections which rushed upon him, as he approached his home, of that passive submission to the will of his parents relative to affairs which, according to his creed, ought to be of the heart; and he felt that nothing could ever induce him to submit to the right of disposal over his very person, which the worthy fathers of Zealand claimed from their children of either sex, as undisturbedly as they enjoyed their hereditary fiefs. In short, Vrank Van Borselen was, in the halls of his ancient race, as much superior to the rude but honest beings around him, as he was in the courts of Burgundy, France, or Rome, to the libertine and unprincipled swarms which the strong heats of civilization are too sure to engender. He was a young man in advance of the times he lived in; in whom reason took the mastery of passion, while good taste at once subdued and strengthened the force of warm feeling. Even in those days of enterprise, and amidst men of the boldest daring, he held a high place, and was generally considered destined to do great things, not so much from his fine talents, evident as they were, as from a rare display of solid judgment capable of directing them in the right road. Philip of Burgundy, his lord by adoption, but to whom he was bound by no allegiance, beyond reciprocal services, held him in high esteem; and had recently employed him in two missions, (on one, as a subordinate auxiliary, on the other, as an independent agent,) either of which many an older follower would have felt honoured by, and might have managed less ably. To render a succinct account of these missions, the latter of which had finished with his delivery of a sealed missive to his father, was the duty which Vrank proceeded to perform, as soon as the first burst of welcome had subsided into a less turbulent delight, and ere the evening repast was served up

in the eating-hall to which they soon adjourned. Vrank took but little heed of the repast itself, beyond the mere indulgence of an excellent appetite. He saw that it was served without those strict forms of etiquette, to which he had been for some years accustomed, and also that the various dishes of which it was composed, seemed but so many modified preparations of the two grand staples of Zealand cookery, fish and wild fowl. But he had for the last few weeks been daily recalled to the recollection of old tastes and customs, by displays nearly similar and always analogous to that which was now spread before him.

"My precious boy," said the mother, following with anxious eyes every morsel that he lifted to his mouth, in the large pewter spoon, or on the sharp point of his clumsy knife, "it does me good to see thee eat. Look, my noble master and gracious husband, how our dear son relishes that mixture of chopped salmon and skelfish, and no wonder, for the juniper sauce might give vigour to the palled palate of a Middleburgh burgher. Change your young master's platter with a helping of yon wild duck, coddled in kelp," continued she, to the serving-wench who aided the cook and kitchen varlets, in their duty of not only dressing the meal but in serving it, as its various parts succeeded on the board.

Floris Van Borselen, to allow his son free scope for eat ing, had turned his eyes again on the despatch which Vrank had before read to him, his own ignorance of the French language making that an insurmountable task to himself; and deaf to his dame's observations, he pondered over the words which he could not decypher, and examined the ducal seal of Burgundy, with a proud satisfaction at this proof of his being in actual and direct correspondence with one of the most potent sovereigns of Europe.

"Now, my dear child," resumed Vrowe Bona, "put aside thy platter. I see the duck is too fishy for thy taste, and in truth till the frost sets in these birds have a seaweed flavour; but this larded curlieu stuffed with Picardy chestnuts, will please thee better-it has been four days steeped in vinegar, and is as tender as a Breda capon."

"In very truth, my good mother," said Vrank, with a smile, "I can eat no more--all the dishes are excellent,

but I must now give over-you see my father h his repast, and I must continue the account of my

"Eat no more! Why child, what is come ove Thou canst not have lost thy native taste, nor French juncates or condiments on our truly board! Neither thy father nor myself, Vrank, eve such pernicious adjuncts to our homely fare."

"You do me wrong, dear mother, if you suspect to relish the good cheer you give me-but where ha your eyes? There must be bounds to mortal ability; made a most hearty meal."

"Alas! Vrank, is this thy notion of a hearty meal much I fear me indeed that foreign customs have fined thy wholesome appetite. Why, the old cu Ovenesse, who crossed from the main-land yesterday made his morning meal with us, ate to his own s young turbot, two pickled plovers and mashed par with the full half of a broiled bittern, a wing of would make more than thy whole supper, and a sl the red-rinded cheese of Edam-and good Father Si is no great feeder neither."

Vrank had nothing more to reply; but his father took up his cause, and gave a new turn to the conversa

"In verity and fair argument, my good wife," said "it doth seem to me that Vrank has done due hono the viands, and enough to prove himself a true and he Zealander. Press the boy no more-let him quaff ther horn of hydromel, and reserve his remaining power the crowning dish of our feast, the emblem of our ca the type of our hopes. Ay! for as sure as that royal blejaw smokes on its platter, so sure shall we triumph those rebellious Hoeks, whom to-morrow shall see down for ever. Honour to thee, my Lord Kabblejaw, great praise and prosperity to thy cause!"

This last apostrophe, in a voice most seriously ludicro was addressed to a huge cod-fish, which the head co carried up in procession and placed on the table, while attendant varlets and wenches solemnly followed, so with sauces, and others merely doing mute honour to t occasion. The fish had a wreath of flowers stuck wi skewers upon his head, and his tail was crisped and twi