"How they'll greet us !"-and all in a moment his roan Then I cast loose my buff-coat, each holster let fall, And all I remember is friends flocking round, As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground; Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent know'ing-pricked, point'ed. meas'ure, por'tion; gob'let. 'Ghent (Gent,-g hard), the chief town in East Flanders, Belgium. 2Aix-Aix-la-Chapelle - a town in Rhenish Prussia, near the Belgian frontier; called in German Aachen. It was the birth-place of Charlemagne, and the capital of his empire. 3 Lokeren (Lok-e'-ren), a town in East Flanders, Belgium. This and the other remember, recollect'. res'olute, determined. spume-flakes, foam'-flecks. staggering, tot'tering. stead'ily, reg'ularly. towns mentioned in the poem are on the route from Ghent to Aix-la-Chapelle, in the order in which they occur:-Boom, Düf'feld ( Dif -feld), Mech'eln (Mek'-lin), Aer'schot (Air-shot), Has'selt, Looz (Löze, rhyming with rose), Ton'gres (Tong'gers), Dâl'hem (Da-lem, a as in får). Roos (Roas), his horse. The German for horse is ross. THE RELIEF OF LEYDEN. 1 A.D. 1574. THE besieged city was at its last gasp. The burghers had been in a state of uncertainty for many days; being aware that the fleet had set forth for their relief, but knowing full well the thousand obstacles which it had to surmount. They had guessed its progress by the illumination from the blazing villages; they had heard its salvos of artillery on its arrival at North Aa; but since then all had been dark and mournful again, hope and fear, in sickening alternation, 'distracting every breast. They knew that the wind was unfavourable, and at the dawn of each day every eye was turned wistfully to the vanes of the steeples. So long as the easterly breeze prevailed, they felt, as they anxiously stood on towers and house-tops, that they must look in vain for the welcome ocean. Yet, while thus patiently waiting, they were literally starving; for even the misery endured at Haarlem2 had not reached that depth and intensity of agony to which Ley'den was now reduced. Bread, malt-cake, horse-flesh, had entirely disappeared; dogs, cats, rats and other vermin, were esteemed luxuries. A small number of cows, kept as long as possible for their milk, still remained; but a few were killed from day to day, and 'distributed in minute portions, hardly sufficient to support life, among the famishing population. Starving wretches swarmed daily around the shambles where these cattle were slaughtered, contending for any morsel which might fall, and lapping eagerly the blood as it ran along the pavement; while the hides, chopped and boiled, were greedily devoured. Women and children, all day long, were seen searching gutters and dunghills for morsels of food, which they disputed fiercely with the famishing dogs. The green leaves were stripped from the trees, every living herb was converted into human food; but these expedients could not avert starvation. The daily mortality was frightful. Infants starved to death on the maternal breasts which famine had parched and withered; mothers dropped dead in the streets, with their dead children in their arms. In many a house the watchmen, in their rounds, found a whole family of corpses-father, mother, children-side by side; for a disorder called "the Plague," naturally engendered of hardship and famine, now came, as if in kindness, to abridge the agony of the people. Pestilence stalked at noonday through the city, and the doomed inhabitants fell like grass beneath his scythe. From six thousand to eight thousand human beings sank before this scourge alone; yet the people resolutely held out, women and men mutually encouraging each other to resist the entrance of their foreign foe3-an evil more horrible than pest or famine. Leyden was sublime in its despair. A few murmurs were, however, occasionally heard at the steadfastness of the magis trates; and a dead body was placed at the door of the burgomaster, as a silent witness against his 'inflexibility. A party of the more faint-hearted even assailed the heroic Adrian Van der Werf with threats and reproaches as he passed along the streets. A crowd had gathered around him as he reached a triangular place in the centre of the town, into which many of the principal streets emptied themselves, and upon one side of which stood the church of St. Pancras. There stood the burgomaster, a tall, haggard, imposing figure, with dark visage and a tranquil but commanding eye. waved his broad-leaved felt hat for silence, and then exclaimed, in language which has been almost literally preserved, "What would ye, my friends? Why do ye murmur that we do not break our vows and surrender the city to the Spaniards?—a fate more horrible than the agony which she now endures. I tell you I have made an oath to hold the city; and may God give me strength to keep my oath! I can die but once, whether by your hands, the enemy's, or by the hand of God. My own fate is 'indifferent to me; not so that of the city intrusted to my care. I know that we shall starve if not soon relieved; but starvation is preferable to the dishonoured death which is the only alternative. Your menaces nove me not. My life is at your disposal. Here is my sword; plunge it into my breast, and divide my flesh among you. Take my body to appease your hunger, but expect no surrender so long as I remain alive.". ...... On the 28th of September a dove flew into the city, bringing a letter from Admiral Boisot.5 In this despatch the position of the fleet at North Aa was described in encouraging terms, and the inhabitants were assured that, in a very few days at furthest, the long-expected relief would enter their gates. The tempest came to their relief. A violent equinoctial gale, on the night of the 1st and 2nd of October, came storming from the north-west, shifting after a few hours fully eight points, and then blowing still more violently from the south-west. The waters of the North Sea were piled in vast masses upon the southern coast of Holland, and then dashed 'furiously landward, the ocean rising over the earth and sweeping with unrestrained power across the ruined dikes. In the course of twenty-four hours the fleet at North Aa, instead of nine inches, had more than two feet of water...... On it went, sweeping over the broad waters. As they approached some shallows which led into the great Mere, the Zeelanders dashed into the sea, and with sheer strength shouldered every vessel through! It was resolved that a sortie, in conjunction with the opera tions of Boisot, should be made against Lam'men with the earliest dawn. Night descended upon the scene-a pitch-dark night, full of anxiety to the Spaniards, to the Arma'da, to Leyden. Strange sights and sounds occurred at different moments to 'bewilder the anxious sentinels. A long procession of lights issuing from the fort was seen to flit across the black face of the waters, in the dead of night; and the whole of the city wall between the Cowgate and the town of Burgundy fell with a loud crash. The horror-struck citizens thought that the Spaniards were upon them at last; the Spaniards imagined the noise to indicate a desperate sortie of the citizens. Everything was vague and mysterious. Day dawned at length after the feverish night, and the admiral prepared for the assault. Within the fortress reigned a death-like stillness, which inspired a sickening suspicion. Had the city indeed been carried in the night? had the i 'massacre already commenced? had all this labour and 'audacity been expended in vain ? Suddenly a man was descried wading breast-high through the water from Lammen towards the fleet, while at the same time one solitary boy was seen to wave his cap from the summit of the fort. After a moment of doubt, the happy mystery was solved. The Spaniards had fled 'panic-struck during the darkTheir position would still have enabled them, with firmness, to frustrate the enterprise of the patriots; but the hand of God, which had sent the ocean and the tempest to the deliverance of Leyden, had struck her enemies with terror likewise. ness. The lights which had been seen moving during the night were the lanterns of the retreating Spaniards; and the boy who was now waving his triumphant signal from the battlements had alone witnessed the 'spectacle. So confident was he in the conclusion to which it led him, that he had volunteered at daybreak to go thither alone. The magistrates, fearing a trap, hesitated for a moment to believe the truth, which soon, however, became quite evident. Val'dez, flying himself from Ley'derdorp, had ordered Colonel Borgia to retire with all his troops from Lammen. Thus the Spaniards had retreated at the very moment that an 'extraordinary accident had laid bare a whole side of the city for their entrance! The noise of the wall as it fell only inspired them with fresh alarm; for they believed that the citizens had sallied forth in the darkness to aid the advancing flood in the work of destruction. All obstacles being now removed, the fleet of Boisot swept by Lammen, and entered the city on the morning of the 3rd of October. Leyden was relieved!s J. L. MOTLEY, (*) occurred', hap'pened. pan'ic-struck, ter'rified. pref'erable, more to be wished. spectacle, sight. sum'mit, highest point. surmount', overcome'. tran'quil, calm. uncertainty, doubt. unrestrained', unchecked' wist'fully, long'ingly. The besieged city,--Ley'den, now a | Alva, starved the little garrison of Haarflourishing manufacturing town of South | lem (20 miles north of Leyden) into a surHolland. It was besieged by the Spaniards render (1573); and then, enraged at the when they tried to subdue the Netherlands under their yoke. The siege began gallant defence they had made, butchered them without mercy. When the executioners were worn out with their bloody work, he tied the three hundred citizens that remained back to back, and flung them into the sea."-COLLIER'S Great Events of History (Nelsons' Series). * Foreign foe, the Spaniards. 'A'drian Van der Werf, the burgomaster, or chief magistrate of Leyden. Admiral Boi'sot, the commander of the Dutch fleet. 6 Lam'men, a fort occupied by the Spaniards, which formed the sole remaining obstacle between the fleet and the city. It swarmed with soldiers, and bristled with cannon; and so serious an impediment did Boisot consider it, that he wrote that very night in desponding terms regarding it to the Prince of Orange. Val'dez, the Spanish commander. His head-quarters were at Ley'derdorp, a mile and a half to the right of Lammen. Leyden was relieved. The University of Leyden was erected as a memorial of this gallant defence and happy deliverance. The relief of Leyden was a fatal blow to Spanish power in the Nether 2 At Haar'lem.-"Frederick, the son of lands. QUESTIONS.-What means did the burghers of Leyden know were being taken to relieve them? What was unfavourable to the advance of the fleet? In what condition were the citizens at this time? What added its horrors to those of famine? Whom did some of the faint-hearted assail? How did he address the people? What news arrived on the 28th of September? What at last came to their relief? What did the citizens resolve upon, on the night of the 2nd October? What strange sight occurred during the night? What strange sound was heard? By what was it caused? What had the Spaniards supposed it to be? What were the lights which had been seen moving? Who was the only occupant of Lainmen visible in the morning? When was Leyden relieved? |