years his junior, in
these evil times, but to-day he showed himself satisfied with Van der
Werff's choice.

Maria returned to the guests, filled and offered glasses of wine to
the gentlemen, and then went to her sister-in-law's room, to help her
prepare everything for the sick girl as well as possible. She did not do
so unwillingly, but it seemed as if she would have gone to the work with
far greater pleasure early the next morning.

Barbara's spacious chamber looked out upon the court-yard. No sound
could be heard there of the conversation going on between the gentlemen
in the dining-room, yet it was by no means quiet among these men who,
though animated by the same purpose, differed widely about the ways and
means of bringing it to a successful issue.

There they sat, the brave sons of a little nation, the stately leaders
of a small community, poor in numbers and means of defence, which had
undertaken to bid defiance to the mightiest power and finest armies of
its age. They knew that the storm-clouds, which had been threatening for
weeks on the horizon, would rise faster and faster, mass together,
and burst in a furious tempest over Leyden, for Herr Van der Werff had
summoned them to his house because a letter addressed to himself and
Commissioner Van Bronkhorst by the Prince, contained tidings, that the
Governor of King Philip of Spain had ordered Senor del Campo Valdez
to besiege Leyden a second time and reduce it to subjection. They were
aware, that William of Orange could not raise an army to divert the
hostile troops from their aim or relieve the city before the lapse of
several months; they had experienced how little aid was to be expected
from the Queen of England and the Protestant Princes of Germany, while
the horrible fate of Haarlem, a neighboring and more powerful city,
rose as a menacing example before their eyes. But they were conscious of
serving a good cause, relied upon the faith, courage and statesmanship
of Orange, were ready to die rather than allow themselves to be enslaved
body and soul by the Spanish tyrant. Their belief in God's justice was
deep and earnest, and each individual possessed a joyous confidence in
his own resolute, manly strength.

In truth, the men who sat around the table, so daintily decked with
flowers by a woman's hand, understood how to empty the large fluted
goblets so nimbly, that jug after jug of Peter's Malmsey and Rhine wine
were brought up from the cellar, the men w