INTERPOSITION OF PROVIDENCE. 63 # One night about nine o'clock, when the workmen were gone home, a person dressed in uniform, with a musquet and broad sword, came to her house, and requested a lodging: "I let no lodgings, friend," said the widow, " and besides, I have no spare bed, unless you sleep with my son, which I think very improper, on account of your being a perfect stranger to us all." The soldier then shewed a discharge from Diesbach's regiment (signed by the Major, who gave him an excellent character), and a passport from Compte Maillebois, governor of Breda. The widow, believing the stranger to be an honest man, called her son, and asked him if he would accommodate a veteran, who had served the republic thirty years with reputation, with part of his bed. The young man consented; the soldier was accordingly hospitably entertained; and at a seasonable hour withdrew to rest. Some hours afterwards, a loud knocking was heard at the street door, which roused the soldier, who moved softly down stairs, and listened at the hall door, when the blows were repeated, and the door almost broken through by a sledge, or some heavy instrument. By this time the widow and her daughters were much alarmed by this violent attack, and ran almost frantic through different parts of the house, exclaiming "Murder! Murder!" The son having joined the soldier with a case of loaded pistols, 64 INTERPOSITION OF PROVIDENCE. and the latter screwing on his bayonet and fresh priming his piece, which was charged with slugs, requested the women to keep themselves in a back room out of the way of danger. Soon after the door was burst in, two ruffians entered, and were instantly shot by the son, who discharged both his pistols at once. Two other associates of the dead men immediately returned the fire, but without effect, when the intrepid and veteran stranger, taking immediate advantage of the discharge of their arms, rushed on them like a lion, ran one through the body with his bayonet, and whilst the other was running away, lodged the contents of his piece between his shoulders, and he dropped dead on the spot. The son and the stranger then closed the door as well as they could, reloaded their arms, made a good fire, and watched till day-light, when the weavers and spinners of the manufactory came to resume their employment, who were struck with horror and surprize at seeing four men dead on the dunghill adjoining the house, where the soldier had dragged them before they closed the door. ' The burgomaster and his syndic attended, and took the depositions of the family relative to this affair. The bodies were buried in a cross-road, and a stone erected over the grave, with this inscription: Here lie the re"mains of four unknown ruffians, who deservedly lost "their lives, in an attempt to rob and murder a worthy INTERPOSITION OF PROVIDENCE. 65 "woman and her family. A stranger who slept in the house, "to which Divine Providence undoubtedly directed him, 66 was the principal instrument in preventing the perpetra"tion of such horrid designs, which justly entitles him to "a lasting memorial, and the thanks of the public. John "Adrian de Gries, a discharged soldier from the regiment "of Diesbach, a native of Middleburgh in Zealand, and " upwards of seventy years old, was the David who slew two of these Goliaths, the rest being killed by the "son of the family. In honorem, a gratitudine ergo, "Dei optimi maximi, pietatis et innocentiæ summi protectoris, magistratus et concilium civitatis Dortrechiensis "hoc signum poni curavere, xx. die Nov. annoque salu"tis humanæ, 1785." 66 The widow presented the soldier with one hundred guineas, and the city settled a handsome pension on him for the rest of his life. K CHAPTER V. LICENSED BROTHELS-REMARK UPON THEM-DUTCH LITERARY MEETING DESCRIBED-SPITTING POTS-PIPES, DUTCH EXTRAVAGANT IN THEM SMOKING-HISTORICAL ANECDOTE OF TOBACCO-GENERAL TEMPERANCE OF THE DUTCH-ARBITRARY POWER OF POLICE MASTERS-TRAVELLING IN HOLLAND VERY CHEAP AND VERY AGREEABLE-CANAL TO DELFT DUTCH SAWING MILLS-ENGLISH CIRCU LAR MASONRY MILLS-DUTCH LANGUAGE-SPECIMEN OF THE IT is matter of surprize to the contemplative traveller to observe in a country apparently so mechanically moral and regular as Holland, the glaring defects of the most loose and meretricious government: in the heart of the finest cities are to be found brothels surpassing in iniquity all such seats of impurity in any other nation, in which the horrible novelty of the most savage oppression is united to a public, licensed, and authorised display of vice and profligacy. I mean the spill-houses, to one of which my lacquey de place conducted me about ten o'clock at night, when those scenes of revelry open. In a street, in an inferior quarter of the town, the sound of fiddles and dancing announced the approach to one of these houses: LICENSED BROTHELS. 67 presently my guide stopped before one of them, into the saloon of which he introduced me by pulling aside a curtain drawn before the door, near which, in a little raised orchestra, two fiddlers were scraping; upon benches at the other end of the room were seven or eight females, painted and dressed in all their finery, with large silver buckles, loose muslin robes, massy gilt ear-rings, and ornaments of the same metal round the head. Most of them looked very jaded. As soon as I entered, a bottle of wine and glasses, and pipes and tobacco, were put before me, for which I paid a florin, and which. is considered as the premium of admission. These miserable wretches were all prostitutes and prisoners, confined to this haunt of vice, and never suffered to pass its threshold until enabled, out of the wages of prostitution, to redeem themselves. The way in which they are ensnared into this brothel-dungeon is worthy of notice. The keeper of it hears of some girl who is in debt, frequently occasioned by dressing beyond her means, to set off her person to advantage at some of the music-rooms or other public places: he approaches her, pities her, offers her money to discharge her debts, advances her more for immediate and future purposes; she becomes his debtor: in a short time he seizes upon her person, and bears her away to his bagnio, and receives |