They were admitted to the palace of the Prince of Orange, and saw his famous collection of paintings and chalk drawings. They went over the _Binnenhof_, which is a collection of ancient stone buildings, containing a handsome Gothic hall, and the prison in which Grotius and Barneveldt were confined, the churches, synagogues, and the royal library, and walked on the _Voorhout_, a beautiful promenade, with a fine, wide road lined with shade trees and furnished with benches, to the _Bosch_, a finely wooded park belonging to the King of Holland. In its centre, reached by winding walks among the trees and beautiful lakes, stands the _Huys in den Bosch_--house in the wood--the king's summer palace. After visiting all these places, and the printing establishments and iron foundery, Mr. Hyde, finding he had another day before the steamer sailed, took them all to Rotterdam. They went by railway to the city, and drove around it in an open carriage, like a barouche, which was waiting at the depot. Mr. Hyde, who had been there before, was quite familiar with the place. He ordered the coachman to drive through the High Street; and soon the children found themselves on a street considerably higher than the others, lined with shops, and looking very pleasant and busy. Mr. Hyde told them it was built upon the dam which prevented the Maas River from overflowing. "And this is the only street in Rotterdam," said he, "which has not a canal in its centre." [Illustration: The Queen of Holland.--Page 61.] When they had gone the length of High Street, they came to street after street, each having a canal in the middle, lined with trees on both sides, and exhibiting a medley of high gable fronts of houses, trees, and masts of shipping. "Dear me!" cried Nettie; "I wouldn't live in such a place for the world. It's pretty to look at; but think of having those ships going by right under the drawing-room windows. They make me giddy." "How many canals!" cried Allan. "They go lengthwise and crosswise through every street but the High." "And these clumsy bridges," said Nettie again, pointing to the drawbridges of white painted wood which they saw at every little distance; they were made of large, heavy beams overhead, and lifted by chains for the vessels to pass through. Under the trees, beside the canals, were yellow brick "sidewalks," as Nettie called them; but they were really quays, for the landing of goods. Between the trees and the houses, on a coarse, rough pavement, among carts, drays, and carriages, walked the foot passengers quite frequently. For though there were sidewalks close to the houses, little outbuildings and flights of steps to doorways were continually in the way, and it was "impossible for one to walk straight along, or at all fast, on any of them," as the children said.