_May 30th._--How delightful the tranquillity of Strytem appears after the stir and bustle of yesterday! The fields look more gay, the woods and pleasure-grounds more lovely than ever. Yesterday morning was passed amidst the din of arms and pomp of war--amidst crowds of crested warriors and the clang of martial music--the evening in festivity, amidst magnates of the earth. How differently has this lovely day glided by! The morning I passed in a quiet peaceable ride amidst the charming scenery of the neighbourhood--wandering through corn-fields, orchards, and hop-grounds, and exploring the shady recesses of the Bois de Liederkerke; the evening in voluptuous indolence, sauntering up and down under the magnificent beeches of the great avenue, indulging in fairy dreams, and listening to the rural sound that, from time to time, broke on the stillness of the hour, whilst the smoke of my cigar hung in wreaths around me as I occasionally stopped to contemplate the scene. No living soul interrupted the solitude, except once the gardener’s son, in his blue smock-frock, wooden shoes, and dirty night-cap, with a long rusty old gun under his arm and a short pipe in his mouth, crossed the avenue, marched up the central path of the garden, and disappeared amongst the thickets of the _pleasaunce_ beyond. He went, I knew (for he always said so), to the Chasse aux Lièvres for the supply of our table; but as that was badly supplied, we might have fancied our gamekeeper a bad shot, had not our worthy doctor one evening (for what purpose he could best say) also taken a ramble in the said _pleasaunce_, where, to his infinite surprise, he stumbled upon our chasseur making love to his sister’s _adjointe_ (a great Flanderkin of a Maritornes), which instantly explained the deficiency of supply. There he went then, as I said, for either purpose--his short pipe leaving a long gossamer-like film of smoke behind him. And this digression brings me to the close of this delightful day. The genial month of May thus terminated amidst the delightful enjoyments of a country life, and June commenced under happy auspices, little dreaming of the far different scenes we were destined to witness ere yet another month had passed.