The critics of Europe are puzzled by Couperus's case. A Frenchman has declared that he is decidedly not a student of contemporary French fiction, that he does not "derive" from the French psychological novelists; a German has sought to account for a certain seriousness in his work through a distant Scottish ancestor (the family name is said to be a Latinization of Cowper)—as if Dutch ancestry itself did not suffice to explain this trait; while, finally, a Dutchman has offered the suggestion that the secret of Couperus's elusive individuality as a writer should be sought in the impressions received by him as a boy during his five years' stay in Java, where his father had been appointed to a judgeship, this Indian influence being brought forward, of course, in interpretation of the author's mysticism. The explanation of these conflicting views is, however, rather simple. Each book of Couperus published thus far has presented some new phase of his mind, and the international trio of critics did not base their verdicts upon the same book. It would be wiser, probably, to defer all attempts at definitive appreciation or criticism of this able Hollander until he has at least reached the youth of old age. So far as he has gone, he has certainly demonstrated a marked degree of originality; but for all that, he is, at least in some measure, indebted to the ''Sensitivist" school which he denies, and in lesser measure to the modern Frenchmen, Withal he remains typically Dutch in essence.
"Fate" is the most characteristic of Couperus's novels translated into English, the book in which he apparently has given most of his own inner self, of his intimate personal attitude toward life. Its conception of Fate harks back to that of the classic Greek dramatists, its modern setting making the ancient note all the more striking. The story, then, here offered, is certainly worthy of representing in a foreign tongue the only Dutch novelist who is of the company of the world's masters of fiction to-day.
A. SCHADE VAN WESTRUM.
LIFE OF CONSCIENCE
ONE day, twenty-five years ago, the Belgian people united in doing honor to a man of national celebrity. Only two years later another incident occurred evoking general tributes of respect and admiration toward the same popular individual. The festival of 1881 was held to solemnize a literary event, the publication of his one hundredth volume by Hendrik Conscience; and in 1883 thousands and thousands of Belgians, belonging to all classes, followed his bier, forming an obsequial procession that at once betokened grief for his loss and triumph for his memory.
This novelist, who wrote his stories in Flemish, was born at Antwerp in the course of the year 1812. After attending local schools, young Hendrik at the age of twenty enlisted in a Belgian cavalry regiment, where he advanced to the rank of sergeant. But in 1836 he left the army to become private tutor in the royal family. His august pupils having grown up, he was given an official position of some importance at Courtrai, whence he ultimately removed to Brussels, as director of the public picture galleries, continuing in this post until very near the end of his days.
During his brief military career Conscience wrote some popular songs, and the year after his retirement brought out the first of a long series of historical novels, "The Year of Miracles" (1837). "The Lion of Flanders," which was published in 1838, and "Arteveldt" (1849) might be mentioned as two of his early successes. "The Fisherman's Daughter" (1893) and "Ludovic and Gertrude" (1895) were two of the best known among the historical novels he produced in old age. Never wearying of the Flemish people as a subject for his muse, he not only wrote many volumes describing their past and keeping alive their traditions, but comiposed a large number of tales concerning their manners and customs, their character, their ways of thinking, their home life in town and country. Especially famous among these domestic canvases—genre pictures, a painter would call them—is "What a Mother Can Suffer," which appeared in 1843. Other titles to be noted in this category are "The Conscript," "The Miser," "The Poor Gentleman," and "The Curse of the Village."
THE LION OF FLANDERS
BOOK FIRST
CHAPTER I
The east was reddening with the first doubtful rays of the morning sun, still enveloped with the clouds of night as with a garment, but at the same time making a perfect rainbow in each drop of dew; the blue mist hung like an impalpable veil on the tops of the trees, and the flower-cups opened lovingly to the first beams of the new daylight. The nightingale had more than once repeated his sweet descant in the glimmering dawn; but now the confused chirping of the inferior songsters overpowered his entrancing melody.
Silently trotted a little band of knights along the plains of West Flanders, near the small town of Rousselare. The clank of their arms and the heavy tread of their horses broke the rest of the peaceful denizens of the woods; for ever and anon sprang a frightened stag from out the thicket, and fled from the coming danger as on the very wings of the wind.
The dress and arms of these knights were alike costly, as beseemed nobles of the very first rank, and even greater still than they. Each wore a silken surcoat, which fell in heavy folds over the body; while a silvered helmet, beplumed with purple and bright-blue feathers, decked his head. The steel scalework of their gauntlets, and their gold inlaid kneepieces, flashed brightly in the beams of the rising sun. The impatient foam-besprinkled steeds champed their shining bits, and the silver studs and silken tassels which ornamented their trappings glanced and danced right merrily as they went.
