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guarded from attack by no less than sixty-two forts and redoubts which, held by the Spaniards, seemed to make them safe. Despite all this, the Prince of Orange sent word to the inhabitants that if they would hold out for three months he would find means for their deliverance, and they believed him.

In June, Requesens, by order of the king, issued a proclamation of general amnesty, over which he had been pondering long. It promised full forgiveness for the past to every one, except a few individuals specified by name, on the sole condition that they would return to the bosom of Mother Church. But two persons in the whole country took advantage of this act of grace -one a brewer in Utrecht, the other a son of a refugee peddler from Leyden. This should answer the question as to the character of the war. The taxation of Alva was but the spark by which the flame was kindled. It was devotion to religious liberty that supplied the fuel.

In July, the Prince of Orange began to cut the outer dikes, believing that the flood of water then admitted would prove sufficient to drive out the Spaniards. Here, however, his calculations were at fault. The water entered, but the inner barriers stood firm. Then he organized a flotilla, which, manned by the wild Beggars of the Sea, followed the advancing waves and attacked the remaining dikes one by one. This was a work of time and difficulty, for the Spaniards were in overwhelming numbers and made a stout resistance. Still, little by little an advance was made.*

It is a curious fact that in this flotilla there was a vessel designed by the inventive Hollanders which was the forerunner of our modern iron-clads. It was a floating structure of great size, called

Meantime, as the slow work went on, the unhappy inhabitants of the city were reduced to dreadful straits. The three months which were to bring relief had stretched to four. For two, they said, they had lived on food, but during the other two without it. Every green thing within the walls was consumed; infants starved to death on the bosoms of their famished mothers; the watchmen, as they went about the streets, found many a house untenanted, except by withered corpses.

Finally came the plague to add its horrors to starvation, and six or eight thousand victims fell before its breath. Day by day the heroic survivors clambered up the Tower of Hengist to watch and pray. For weeks the wind had been blowing from the east, and unless it changed relief was hopeless. Nothing but a strong gale from the ocean, even after all the dikes were cut, would heap up the waters so as to flood the country. Still, although a full pardon was freely offered them, there was little thought of surrender. To the taunts of the foe without, this response was made: "Ye call us rat-eaters and dog-eaters, and it is true. So long, then as ye hear dog bark or cat mew within the walls, ye may know that the city holds out. And when all has perished but ourselves, be sure that we will devour our left arms, retaining our right to defend our women, our liberty, and our religion, against the foreign tyrant. Should God in his wrath doom us to destruction, and deny us all relief, even then will we maintain ourselves forever against your entrance. When the last hour has come, with our own hands we will set fire to the city, and perish, men, women, and children, together in the

the "Ark of Delft," covered with shot-proof bulwarks, and propelled by paddle-wheels moved by a crank. Motley, ii. 567.

flames rather than suffer our homes to be polluted and

our liberties to be crushed."*

against such a people?

At length deliverance came.

What could Spain do

On the 1st of October

the wind shifted to the west; on the 3d, the Spaniards had fled before the flood, the fleet was at the walls, and Leyden was relieved.

The first act of this half-starved people tells much of the story of their lives. Forming at once in solemn procession, they marched to the church, and on bended knee gave thanks to the Almighty God, whose wisdom they had never doubted. When, however, they attempted to close the service with a hymn, the strain upon them was too great; as the grand chorus swelled, the multitude wept like children. These were the men who, thirty-five years later, gave a home to the Pilgrim Fathers. What lessons of fortitude and devotion the English exiles must have learned as they walked about a city sacred to the cause of religion, liberty, and learning!

The next act of this God-fearing community tells the rest of their story. To commemorate the siege, and as a reward for the heroism of the citizens, the Prince of Orange, with the consent of the Estates of the province, founded the University of Leyden. Still, the figment of allegiance remained; the people were only fighting for their constitutional rights, and so were doing their duty to the sovereign. Hence the charter of the university ran in the name of Philip, who was credited with its foundation, as a reward to his subjects for their rebellion against his evil counsellors and servants, "especially in consideration of the differences in religion,

* Motley, ii. 571.

and the great burdens and hardships borne by the citi zens of our city of Leyden during the war with such faithfulness." Motley calls this "ponderous irony," but the Hollanders were able lawyers and intended to build on a legal basis.

This event marks an epoch in the intellectual history of Holland and of the world. We have already seen something of her classical schools, which contributed so much to the growth of the Reformation, and of the general education which reached down even to the peasantry. Still, she had no prominent institutions for a higher culture. Before the war they were not necessary, for the University of Louvain, in Brabant, was very near, while the sons of the wealthy who desired better advantages could find them in Paris or Italy. Now all that was changed. When Alva arrived in the Netherlands, the oldest son of the Prince of Orange was a student at Louvain. No one thought that the Spaniards would make war upon children, any more than upon women, but this was a mistake. The boy was carried to Spain and kept a prisoner for twenty years. The Hollanders now resolved that such a misfortune should not occur again, but that their young men should have the opportunity for the highest education within the guarded precincts of their own walled towns.

The new university was opened in 1575, and from the outset took the highest rank. Speaking, a few years ago, of its famous senate chamber, Niebuhr called it "the most memorable room of Europe in the history of learning." The first curator was John Van der Does, who had been military commandant of the city during the siege. He was of a distinguished family, but was still more distinguished for his learning, his poetical genius,

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and his valor.* Endowed with ample funds, the university largely owed its marked pre-eminence to the intelligent foresight and wise munificence of its curators. They sought out and obtained the most distinguished scholars of all nations, and to this end spared neither pains nor expense. Diplomatic negotiation and even princely mediation were often called in for the acquisition of a professor. Hence it was said that it surpassed all the universities of Europe in the number of its scholars of renown.

These scholars were treated with princely honors. When Scaliger came from France, in 1593, he was conveyed in a ship-of-war sent for the special purpose. His successor, Salmasius, also a Frenchman, upon visiting his native land, went in a frigate, escorted by the whole Dutch fleet to Dieppe. When he visited Sweden and Denmark, royal escorts accompanied him from the borders of one country to another.† The "mechanicals" of

*Davies's "Holland," 1i. 15; Motley, ii. 553.

See article on "Leiden University," by Prof. W. T. Hewett, of Cornell University, in Harper's Magazine for March, 1881, to which I am much indebted. Prof. Hewett, himself a student at this famous university, in common with every intelligent observer who has lived in Holland, was much struck with the similarity between the Dutch and the American modes of thought. He says: "The Dutch mind is more like the American in its method of thought than is that of any other nation of the Continent. There is the same intensity of feeling on all religious questions, the same keen, practical genius. An invisible line separates Holland from Germany. The purpose of the Hollander is direct. The Hollander understands America and republican institutions, and their true foundations in the intelligence and self-control of the people. I always felt sure of being understood when speaking with an educated Hollander, whether discussing Church and State or our current political questions. He could rightly estimate the real and unreal dangers which attend demo