ew from house to house, touched pretty
little Bessie's heart, and kissed her closed eyes while she slumbered in
the quiet night.

The faint-hearted and the Spanish sympathizers raised their heads
and assembled in bands, one of which forced a passage into the
council-chamber and demanded bread. But not a crumb remained, and the
magistrates had nothing more to distribute except a small portion of cow
and horse-flesh, and boiled and salted hides.

During this period of the sorest distress, Van der Werff was passing
down the "broad street." He did not notice that a throng of desperate
men and women were pursuing him with threats; but as he turned to enter
Van Hout's house, suddenly found himself surrounded. A pallid woman,
with her dying child in her arms, threw herself before him, held out
the expiring infant, and cried in hollow tones: "Let this be enough,
let this be enough--see here, see this; it is the third. Let this be
enough!"

"Enough, enough! Bread, bread! Give us bread!" was shrieked and shouted
around him, and threatening weapons and stones were raised; but a
carpenter, whom he knew, and who had hitherto faithfully upheld the good
cause, advanced saying in measured accents, in his deep voice: "This can
go on no longer. We have patiently borne hunger and distress in fighting
against the Spaniards and for our Bible, but to struggle against certain
death is madness."

Peter, pale and agitated, gazed at the mother, the child, the sturdy
workman and the threatening, shrieking mob. The common distress, which
afflicted them and so many starving people, oppressed his soul with a
thousand-fold greater power. He would fain have drawn them all to his
heart, as brothers in misfortune, companions of a future, worthier
existence. With deep emotion, he looked from one to the other, then
pressed his hand upon his breast and called to the crowd, which thronged
around him:

"Here I stand. I have sworn to faithfully endure to the end; and you
did so with me. I will not break my oath, but I can die. If my life will
serve you, here I am! I have no bread, but here, here is my body. Take
it, lay hands on me, tear me to pieces. Here I stand, here I stand. I
will keep my oath."

The carpenter bent his head, and said in a hollow tone: "Come, people,
let God's will be done; we have sworn."

The burgomaster quietly entered his friend's house. Frau Van Hout had
seen and heard all this, and on the very same day told the story to
Ma