or, The Silver Skates O15

of royal children, who in time were orphaned by a certain axe
which figures very frequently in European history. These
children were painted many times by the Dutch artist Van
Dyck, who was court-painter to their father, Charles the
First of England. Beautiful children they were. What a
‘deal of trouble the. English nation would have been spared,
had they been as perfect in heart and soul as they were in
form !

The park surrounding the palace is charming, especially in
summer; for flowers and birds make it bright as fairyland.
Long rows of magnificent oaks rear their proud heads, con-
scious that no profaning hand will ever bring them low. In
fact, the Wood has for ages been held as an almost sacred
spot. Children are never allowed to meddle with its smallest
twig: the axe of the woodman has never resounded there.
Even war and riot have passed it reverently, pausing for a
moment in their devastating way. Philip of Spain, while he
ordered Dutchmen to be mowed down by hundreds, issued a
mandate that not a bough of the beautiful Wood should be
touched. And once, when, ina time of great necessity, the
State was about to sacrifice it to assist in filling a nearly
exhausted treasury, the people rushed to the rescue, and nobly
contributed the required amount rather than that the Bosch
should fall.

What wonder, then, that the oaks have a grand, fearless
air? Birds from all Holland have told them how, elsewhere,
trees are cropped and bobbed into shape; but they are
untouched. Year after year, they expand in unclipped luxuri-
ance and beauty. heir wide-spreading foliage, alive with
song, casts a cool shade over lawn and pathway, or bows to
its image in the sunny ponds.