more than one of the Olympians; for besides his business he zealously devoted himself to science and several of the arts.  He was an excellent silver-smith, a die-cutter and engraver of great skill, had a remarkable knowledge of coins, was an industrious student and collector of antiquities.  His little tap-room was also a museum; for on the shelves, that surrounded it, stood rare objects of every description, in rich abundance and regular order; old jugs and tankards, large and small coins, gems in carefully-sealed glass-cases, antique lamps of clay and bronze, stones with ancient Roman inscriptions, Roman and Greek terra-cotta, polished fragments of marble which he had found in Italy among the ruins, the head of a faun, an arm, a foot and other bits of Pagan works of art, a beautifully-enamelled casket of Byzantine work, and another with enamelled ornamentation from Limoges.  Even half a Roman coat of mail and a bit of mosaic from a Roman bath were to be seen here.  Amid these antiquities, stood beautiful Venetian glasses, pine-cones and ostrich-eggs.  Such another tap-room could scarcely be found in Holland, and even the liquor, which a neatly-dressed maid poured for the guests from oddly-shaped tankards into exquisitely-wrought goblets, was exceptionally fine.  In this room Herr Aquanus himself was in the habit of appearing among his guests; in the other, opposite to the entrance, his wife held sway.

On this day, the “Angulus,” as the beautiful taproom was called, was but thinly occupied, for the sun had just set, though the lamps were already lighted.  These rested in three-branched iron chandeliers, every portion of which, from the slender central shaft to the intricately-carved and twisted ornaments, had been carefully wrought by Aquanus with his own hand.

Several elderly gentlemen were at one table enjoying their wine, while at another were Captain Van der Laen, a brave Hollander, who was receiving English pay and had come to the city with the other defenders of Alfen, the Musician Wilhelm, Junker Georg, and the landlord.

“It’s a pleasure to meet people like you, Junker,” said Aquanus.  “You’ve travelled with your eyes open, and what you tell me about Brescia excites my curiosity.  I Should have liked to see the inscription.”

“I’ll get it for you,” replied the young man; “for if the Spaniards don’t send me into another world, I shall certainly cross the Alps again.  Did you find any of these Roman antiquities in your own country?”

“Yes.  At the Roomburg Canal, perhaps the site of the old Praetorium, and at Katwyk.  The forum Hadriani was probably located near Voorburg.  The coat of mail, I showed you, came from there.”

“An old, green, half-corroded thing,” cried Georg.  And yet!  What memories the sight of it awakens!  Did not some Roman armorer forge it for the wandering emperor?  When I look at this coat of mail, Rome and her legions appear before my eyes.  Who would not, like you, Herr Wilhelna, go to the Tiber to increase the short span of the present by the long centuries of the past!”