hanged to a sultry
atmosphere, the grey clouds piled in masses on each other, and grew
black and threatening. A light breeze rose, stirring the leafless
branches of the trees, then a sudden gust of wind swept over the
heads of the throngs watching the distant horizon. A second and third
followed, then a howling tempest roared and hissed without cessation
through the city, wrenching tiles from the roofs, twisting the
fruit-trees in the gardens and the young elms and lindens in many a
street, tearing away the flags the boys had fastened on the walls in
defiance of the Spaniards, lashing the still waters of the city moat
and quiet canals, and--the Lord does not abandon His own--and the vanes
turned, the storm came from the north-west. No one saw the result, but
the sailors shouted the tidings, and each individual caught up the words
and bore them exultantly on--the hurricane drove the sea into the mouth
of the Meuse, forcing back the waves of the river by its fierce assault,
driving them over its banks through the gaps opened in the dykes, and
the gates of the sluices, and bearing forward on their towering crests
the vessels bringing deliverance.

Roar, roar, thou storm, stream, stream, rushing rain, rage, waves,
and destroy the meadows, swallow up houses and villages! Thousands
and thousands of people on the walls and towers of Leyden hail your
approach, behold in you the terrible armies of the avenging God, exult
and shout a joyous welcome!

For two successive days the burgomaster, Maria and Adrian, the Van der
Does and Van Houts stood with brief intervals of rest among the throng
on the citadel or the tower at the Cow-Gate; even Barbara, far
more strengthened by hope than by the barley-porridge or the lean
carrier-pigeon, would not stay at home, but dragged herself to the
musician's look-out, for every one wanted to see the rising water, the
earth softening, the moisture creeping between the blades of grass, then
spreading into pools and ponds, until at last there was a wide expanse
of water, on which bubbles rose, burst under the descending rain, and
formed ever-widening circles. Every one wanted to watch the Spaniards,
hurrying hither and thither like sheep pursued by a wolf. Every one
wanted to hear the thunder of the Beggars' cannon, the rattle of
their arquebuses and muskets; men and women thought the tempest that
threatened to sweep them away, pleasanter than the softest breeze, and
the pouring rain, which drenc