The Departure of a Dignitary from Middelburg

The whole of Middelburg seems to have turned out for this departure. The warship De Zeehondt, flags flying, is being hauled along the channel towards the sea, and four heavy draught horses take the strain of the tow on the dyke. Someone important is leaving. The dignitary rides along the dyke with an escort of horsemen, and even the yacht of Prince Maurice, the stadtholder, joins in with a gun salute, its smoke drifting across the water. The museum's title leaves the traveller unnamed, though a 1995 study proposed Robert Sidney, the English governor of nearby Flushing. Behind the masts stretches the skyline of the town, church towers and all. The museum also points out an African child on board the ship in the middle, a small figure easy to miss in the crowd.