They lived on good beefsteaks and ale, which made them strong and

Oh, more like men than women were those gentle dames of old!

Oh, those mighty towers of old! with their turrets,' moat, and keep;3 Their battlements and bastions,5 their dungeons dark and deep:

Full many a bǎron held his court within the castle hold;

And many a captive languished there, in those strong towers of old.

Oh, the troubadours' of old! with their gentle minstrelsie
Of hope and joy, or deep despair, whiche'er their lot might be:
For years they served their lady-love ere they their passion told;—
Oh, wondrous patience must have had those troubadours of old!

Oh, those blessed times of old! with their chivalry and state;
I love to read their chronicles, which such brave deeds relate;
I love to sing their ancient rhymes, to hear their legends 1o told—
But, Heaven be thanked! I live not in those blessed times of old!

IT

SECTION XIV.

I.

48. THE HONEST DUTCHMEN.

PART FIRST.

T came to påss, in the days of old, that the men of Holland found themselves straitened in their habitations; for who knows not that they were, from the first, a sober, hardy, and industrious race, tilling the ground, buying and selling, eating and drinking in humility? And therefōre they lived to a good old age, and "sent forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dånced;" so that, their land being small, they filled it brimful of inhabitants, till they were ready to overflow all its borders.

2. And they looked this way and that way, and they said, "What shall we do? for the people are many, and the land is small, and we are much straitened for room." So they called together the chief men of their nation, and they held a great council, to consider what they must do.

3. And, behold, there ǎrōse ǎmongst them a man unlike the men of the land; for they were short, and broad, and well-formed in body, of a solemn and quiet countenance, and clad in peaceable garments; but he was tall and bony, and of a grim and hairy aspect. He had a great hard hand, and a fierce eye; his clothes had a wild look; he had a sword by his side, a spear in his gråsp, and his name was Van Manslaughter.

4. With a glad, but a savage gaze, he looked round upon the assembly, and said, "Fellow citizens! I marvel at your perplexity. You sit quietly at home, and know nothing of the world; but I and my followers have pursued the deer and the bōar far away into the forests of Germany. We have fought with the wolf and the bear, and, if need were, with the men of the woods; and enjoy our hunting, and to eat of our prey with joy and jollity.

5. "Why sit ye here in a crowd, like sheep penned in a föld? We have seen the land that is next to ours, and we have been through it to the length of it, and to the breadth of it, and it is

a good land. There are corn and wine; there are cities, towns, and villages ready built to our hands.

6. "Let us arise and come suddenly upon them, and we shall not only get all these possessions, but we shall get great glory." And when he had so said, he looked round him with much exultātion,1 and a crowd of dark hairy faces behind him cried out, "Ay, it is true! Let us arise and get great glōry!"

7. But at that word, thêre stood up Mynheer Kindermann, an old man- —a věry old man. He was of low stature, of a stout, broad frame, and his hair, which was very white, hung down upon his shoulders; and his beard also, as white as driven snow, fell reverently upon his breast. That old man had a large and tranquil countenance; his features were bōld, and of a very healthful complexion; his face, though of a goodly breadth, was of a striking length, for his forehead was bold and high, and his eyes had a pleasant fireside expression, as though he had been used only to behold his children and his children's children at their play, or to fix them on the loving form of his wife or his friend.

8. As he arose, there was a great silence, and he stood and sighed; and those who were near him heard him mutter, in a low tone, the word "Glory," but those afar off only saw his lips move. Then he said aloud, "My brethren! I am glad that you are called upon to get great glory; but what is that glory to which Mynheer Van Manslaughter calls you? In my youth, as some of you well know, I traveled far and wide with my merchandise; I have sojoûrned in all the countries that adjoin ours, and they are truly good countries, and full of people; but what of that?

9. "It is not people that we lack: it is land; and I should like to know how we are to take this land, that is full of people, and yet do those people no wrong! If we go to take that land, we shall find the people ready to defend their homes and their children; and if we fight in a bad cause, we shall probably gět beaten, like thieves and robbers, for our pains;-and is that glory? But if we are able to take that land, we must first kill

1Exultation (ĕgz'ul tā ́shun), lively joy at success or victory, or at any advantage gained; great delight.

2 Myn heer', Sir; Mr. ;-the ordinary title of address among the Dutch; hence, a Dutchman.

or drive out those that cultivate it, and make it fit to live in ;and is that glory?

10. And if we take those cities, and towns, and villages, we must kill those who built them, or have lived pleasantly in them, with God's blessing. Oh, what honèst, inoffensive men, what good, kind-hearted mothers, what sweet and tender brothers and sisters, what dear little babes, we must mûrder and destroy, or drive away from their warm homes, which God has given them, and which are almost as dear to them as their lives, into the dişmal fŏrèsts, to perish with cold and hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts, and, in their anguish, to eûrse us before the Great Father who made us all! My brethren, I can not think that is glory, but great disgrace and infamy,1 and a misery that, I trust, shall never come upon us.

11. "I have long looked about me, and I see that heaven has given all those countries round us to whom he would, and they are full of people; they are full of rich fields and vineyards; they are full of towns for men, and temples for God; they are full of warm, bright, happy homes, where there are proud fathers, and glad mothers, and innocent children, as amongst ourselves; and eûrsed be he who would distûrb or injure them."

66

II.

49. THE HONEST DUTCHMEN.

BUT

PART SECOND.

UT, my brethren, how shall we get glory? and, what is of more immediate necessity, how shall we get land to live in? I have been thinking of this, and it has come into my mind that it has been too long the custom for men to call themselves warriors when they desire to be murderers, and to invade the property and the lives of their neighbors; and I have thought, as all the land is taken up, and as we can not, without great sin, invade the land, that we had better invade the sea, where we can take, and wrong no man.

2. "And who does not know, that has looked toward the sea, that there is much ground which seems properly to belong neither to the sea nor the land? Sometimes it is covered with the

1 In'fa my, the complete loss of character; public disgrace.

waters, and sometimes it is partly bâre—a dreary, slimy, and profitlèss region, inhabited only by voracious1 crabs, that make war upon one another, the stronger upon the weaker-and sea-fowl, which come in like conquerors and subdue them, and devour them, and get what Van Manslaughter calls 'great glory.' My brethren, let us invade the sea-let us get piles, and beams, and stones, and dig up the earth, and make a large mound which will shut out the sea, and we shall have land enough and to spâre."

3. As he finished his speech, there arose a deep mûrmûr, that grew and grew, till it spread among the people collected in thousands without, and at length became like the sound of the ocean itself; and then the people cried out, "Yes, we will invade the sea!" and so it was decreed.

4. Then began they with axes to fell wood; with levers 2 and mattocks to wrench up stones; and with wagons, horses, and oxen, to draw them to the sea. Now, it being the time of low water; and the tide being gone down very far, they began to dig up the earth, and to make a mighty bank. So, when the sea came up again, it saw the bank and the people upon it in great numbers; but it took no notice thereof.

5. And it went down, and came up again, and they had pushed out the bank still farther, and raised it higher, and secured it with beams, and piles, and huge stones, and it began to wonder. And it went down and came up again, and they had pushed the bank still farther, so that, in great amaze, it said within itself, "What are these little insignificant creatures doing? Some great scheme is in their heads, but I wot not what; and one of these days I will come up and overturn their banks, and sweep both it and them away together."

6. But, at length, as it came up once on a time, it beheld that the bank was finished. It stretched across from land to land, and the sea was entirely shut out. Then it was filled with wonder that such little creatures had done so amazing a deed; and with great indignation that they had presumed to interrupt the

1 Vora'cious, greedy for eating; eager to devour or swallow; very hungry.

2 Le'ver, a bar of metal, wood, or other substance used to exert a

pressure, lift, or sustain a weight. 3 Mǎt'tock, a kind of pick-ax, having the iron ends broad instead of pointed.

4 Wŏt, to know.