Led on by those clear voices, our party, with Mevrouw van Gend and her husband, trod the quiet but crowded streets, until they came to a fine old church in the southern part of the city. The interior was large and, notwithstanding its great stained windows, seemed dimly lighted, though the walls were white, and dashes of red and purple sunshine lay brightly upon pillar and pew. Ben saw a few old women moving softly through the aisles, each bearing a high pile of foot-stoves which she distributed among the congregation by skillfully slipping out the under one, until none were left. It puzzled him that mynheer should settle himself with the boys in a comfortable side-pew, after seating his vrouw in the body of the church, which was filled with chairs exclusively appropriated to the women. But Ben was learning only a common custom of the country. The pews of the nobility and the dignitaries of the city were circular in form, each surrounding a column. Elaborately carved, they formed a massive base to their great pillars standing out in bold relief against the blank, white walls beyond. These columns, lofty and well-proportioned, were nicked and defaced from violence done to them long ago; yet it seemed quite fitting that, before they were lost in the deep arches overhead, their softened outlines should leaf out as they did into richness and beauty. Soon, Ben lowered his gaze to the marble floor. It was a pavement of gravestones. Nearly all the large slabs, of which it was composed, marked the resting-places of the dead. An armorial design engraved upon each stone, with inscription and date, told whose form was sleeping beneath, and sometimes three of a family were lying one above the other in the same sepulchre. He could not but think of the solemn funeral procession winding by torch-light through those lofty aisles, and bearing its silent burden toward a dark opening whence a slab had been lifted, in readiness for its coming. It was something to feel that his sister Mabel, who died in her flower, was lying in a sunny church-yard, where a brook rippled and sparkled in the daylight, and waving trees whispered together all night long; where flowers might nestle close to the headstone and moon and stars shed their peace upon it, and morning birds sing sweetly overhead. Then he looked up from the pavement and rested his eyes upon the carved, oaken pulpit, exquisitely beautiful in design and workmanship. He could not see the minister--though, not long before, he had watched him slowly ascending its winding stair--a mild-faced man wearing a ruff about his neck, and a short cloak reaching nearly to the knee. Meantime the great church had been silently filling. Its pews were sombre with men and its centre radiant with women in their fresh Sunday attire. Suddenly a soft rustling spread through the building. All eyes were turned toward the minister now appearing above the pulpit.