Page:Lives of Poets-Laureate.djvu/394

380 been chafed, and became so inflamed, that at Antwerp he was compelled to resign himself to the hands of a surgeon. He remained there several days, and suffered more pain in a week than he had previously experienced through his whole life. On his arrival at Leyden, he found himself unable to proceed further, and intended to repose himself at an hotel. Immediately that his arrival was known, Mr. Bilderdijk hastened forth to offer the hospitalities of his house. Southey felt some hesitation to trouble him with an invalid, but succumbed to the pressing solicitation, and at length frankly accepted the offer. He was extremely anxious to see Mrs. Bilderdijk, Mrs. Bilderdijk no less anxious to see him. The learned lady was not superior to the prevailing weaknesses of the sex; and to her eager question respecting his personal appearance, her husband answered that he looked as Mr. Southey ought to look; a reply which delighted the inquirer and gratified the poet.

Southey remained under their roof three weeks. Mr. Taylor stayed at Leyden with him, while the rest proceeded onward, proposing to re-assemble at some distant point in the route. Never had Southey a more joyous holiday. His minutest tastes were consulted, while his hostess was most considerate and assiduous in her capacity of nurse; and with Bilderdijk's broken English and Southey's Dutch, the conversation never flagged. Our author proposed to repay his host for his cheerful entertainment as he had repaid his friend Cottle years before. He sent for a complete set of his "Poems," and his "History of Brazil;" an inexhaustible source of exhilaration for all coming years at Leyden. They parted with mutual regrets. "No part of his life," he observed, "ever seemed to pass away more rapidly or pleasantly."

Were there truth in the ancient notion of the Divinity