A Wanderer in Holland

e

y of the crime-The tomb of Grotius-Dutch justice-The Old Church-Admiral Tromp-The mission of the broom-The s

; which, as it is, it scrapes. We should have started exactly at the hour were it not that a very small boy on the bank interr

eller. At one village a boy was engaged in house-cleaning by immersing the furniture, piece by piece, bodily in the canal. Now and then we met a barge in

d translations in English have Page 49been made by D. Goslings, both gentlemen, I presume, being local savants. The New Church contains the m

too fine to need all this display and talent. More imposing is the simplicity of the monument to the great scholar near by. Yet remembering the struggle of William the Silent against Spain and Rome, it is impossible to stand unmoved before the marble fig

entence of Motley's great history, perhaps the most perfect last sentence that any book ever had: "As long as he

entering the confronting doorway, one is instantly on the very spot where Wil

d and pious Protestant, whose father had been martyred as a Calvinist. How far removed was the truth Motley shall tell: "Francis Guion, the Calvinist, son of the martyred Calvinist, was in reality Balthazar Gérard, a fanatical Catholic, whose father and mother were still living at Villefans in Burgundy. Before reaching man's estate, he had formed the design of murde

be expert murders but in whom he could put no trust. In Motley's words: "Many unsatisfactory assassins had presented themselves from time to time, and Alexander had paid money in hand to various individuals-Italians, Spaniards, Lorrainers, Scotchmen, Englishmen, who had generally spent the sums received without attempting the job. Others were supposed to be still engaged in the enterprise, and at that Page 51moment there were four persons-each unknown to the others, and of different nations-in

cing any money for the purpose. The result was that Gérard, whose dominating idea amounted to mania, proceeded in his own way. His first step was to ingratiate himself with the Prince of Orange. Th

wont. Motley now relates the tragedy: "Here was an opportunity such as he (Gérard) had never dared to hope for. The arch-enemy to the Church and to the human race, whose death would con

heir deeply important contents suggested, did not observe the countenance of the humble Calvinistic exile, who had been recently recommended to his patronage by Villiers. Gérard had, moreover, made no preparation for an interview so ent

ip in the church opposite, but added, pointing to his shabby and travel-stained attire, that, without at least a new pair of shoes and stockings, he was unfit to join the congregation. Insignificant as ever, the small, pious, dusty stranger excited no suspicion in the mind of the good-natured

price because the vendor could not supply a particular kind of chopped bullets or slugs which he desired. Before the sunset of the followi

rding to his usual custom, in very plain fashion. He wore a wide-leaved, loosely shaped hat of dark felt, with a silken cord round the crown,-such as had been worn by the Beggars in the early days of the revolt. A high ruff encircled his

an undertone that 'she had never seen so villanous a countenance'. Orange, however, not at all impressed with the appearance of Gérard, conducted himself at table with his usual cheerfulness, conversing much with the burgomaster of Leeuwarden, the only guest present at the family dinner, concerning the political and religious aspects of Friesland. At two o'clock the company rose from table.

narrow lane at the side of the house. The stairs themselves were completely lighted by a large window, half-way up the flight. The Prince came from the dining-room, and began le

h!" But he had no time to express any such plea for his assailant after Gérard's cruel shots. "Three balls," says Motley, "entered his body, one of which, passing quite through him

Catherine of Schwartzburgh, immediately afterwards asked him if he co

vigour; his character had never been stronger, his wisdom never more mature. Had h

e mark of a bullet in the wall is still shown. The dining-room, from whi

al. Grotius, who was born at Delft, was extraordinarily precocious. He went to Leyden University and studied under Scaliger when he

to Hugo

the defended honour of true religion gave cedars from the top of Lebanon, whom Mars adorned with laurels and Pallas with olive branches, when he had published the right of war and peace: whom the Tha

ice of Orange, who lies hard by in the same church, was passed in 1618. His escape in the chest (like General Monk in Twenty Years After) was his last deed on Dutch soil. Thenceforward h

it back, for he was our victor in thirty-three naval engagements, the last being the final struggle in the English-Dutch war, when he defeated Monk off Texel in the summer of 1653, and was killed by a bullet in his heart. The battle is depicted in bas-relief on the tomb, but the eye searc

gs' translation o

Eternal

ch, virtue and true l

y down in his life, and taught by his example that a commander should die standing, h

ul protector of commerce; useful through his familiarity, not low; after having ruled the sailors and the soldiers, a rough sort of people, in a fatherly and efficaciously benignant manner; after fifty battles in which he was commander or in which he played a great part; after

ds have erected this memorial in ho

, Lieut.-Admiral of Holland; and Elizabeth van Marnix, wife

aughter of Marnix, a name not unknown in the world, which, in spite of time, will always rema

e church. "As everybody, O Wanderer," the epitaph concludes, "has respect for old age and wo

purchaser of a ticket to enter the churches, is prefaced

on or his assistants, as the former would lose his situat

nts will treat the visitors

of either of these clauses, parti

re minute and elaborate; and soon his matches were in his hand. I wanted to tell him that if I were the only obstacle he might smoke to his heart's content, but it seemed to be more amusing to watch and wait. My return to the tomb of the ingenious constructor of the microscope settled the question. Probably no one had ever spent more than half a minute on poor Leeuwenhoek before; and when I

egarding Clause 3 in the little guide-books; but I feel qu

of

Ve

cture in th

en very brief, for Fabritius did not reach Delft (from Rembrandt's studio) until 1652, when Vermeer was twenty, and he was killed in an explosion in 1654. One sees the influence of Fabritius, if at all, most strongly in the beautiful early picture at The Hague, in the grave, grand manner, of Diana? but the influence of Italy is even Page 59more noticea

t now be said; but it is reasonable to allot to each of those twenty-three years at least five works. As the known pictures of Ver

eenth century, carrying a number of paintings by the best artists of that day-particularly, if I remember, Ger

and his second Mr. Henri Havard, the author of very pleasant books on Holland from which I shall occasionally quote. Both th

s woman that hath two husbands at one time is to wear on her shoulders, her head peeping out at the top only, and so led about the town, a

. A history of Delft written by Dirk van Bleyswijck and published in 1667, tells us that the rise of the porcelain industry followed the decline o

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d any of those breweries th

he branches filled with little, naked urchins, seemingly just ripened into life, and crying for succour: beneath, a woman holds up her apron, looking wistfully at th

ik zal z

is new mode of procreation, so truly whimsic

triumphant elevation, stand ranks on ranks of bells from the solemn to the wild, from the large to the small, a hundred, or two hundred or a thousand. There is here the prodigality of Brabant and Hainaut and the Batavian blood, a generosity and a productivity in bells without stint, the man who designed it saying: 'Since we are to have bells, let us have bells; not measured out, calculated, expensive, and prudent bells, but careless bells, self-answering multitudinous bells; bells without fear, bells excessiv

magine that there is any obsession of noise through this; they are far too high and melodious, and (what is more) too thoroughly a part of all the spirit of Page 62Delft to be more than a perpetual and half-forgotten impression of continu

is tragical occasion is still to be seen a

used as a barrack) still presents nearly t