another, and many other good things of which they had long been
deprived, weeping and sobbing with emotion like children, while the poor
people eat and eat, unable to utter a word of thanks. Then the leaders
came, Admiral Boisot embraced the Van der Does and Burgomaster Van der
Werff, the Beggar captain Van Duijkenburg was clasped in the arms of his
mother, Barbara, and many a Leyden man hugged a liberator, on whom his
eyes now rested for the first time. Many, many tears fell, thousands of
hearts overflowed, and the Sunday bells, sounding so much clearer and
gayer than usual, summoned rescuers and rescued to the churches to pray.
The spacious sanctuary was too small for the worshippers, and when the
pastor, Corneliussohn, who filled the place of the good Verstroot, now
ill from caring for so many sufferers, called upon the congregation to
give thanks, his exhortation had long since been anticipated; from the
first notes of the organ, the thousands who poured into the church
had been filled with the same eager longing, to utter thanks, thanks,
fervent thanks.

In the Grey Sisters' chapel Father Damianus also thanked the Lord, and
with him Nicolas Van Wibisma and other Catholics, who loved their native
land and liberty.

After church Adrian, holding a piece of bread in one hand and his shoes
in the other, waded at the head of his school-mates through the higher
meadows to Leyderdorp, to see the Spaniards' deserted camp. There stood
the superb tent of General Valdez, in which, over the bed, hung a map of
the Rhine country, drawn by the Netherlander Beeldsnijder to injure his
own nation. The boys looked at it, and a Beggar, who had formerly been
in a writing-school and now looked like a sea-bear, said:

"Look here, my lads. There is the Land-scheiding.

"We first pierced that, but more was to be done. The green path had many
obstacles, and here at the third dyke--they call it the Front-way--there
were hard nuts to crack, and farther progress was impossible. We now 45
returned, made a wide circuit across the Segwaertway, and through this
canal here, where there was hard fighting, to North-Aa. The Zoetermeer
Lake now lay behind us, but the water became too shallow and we could
get no farther. Have you seen the great Ark of Delft? It's a huge
vessel, moved by wheels, by which the water is thrust aside. You'll
be delighted with it. At last the Lord gave us the storm and the
spring-tide. Then the vessels had the right depth o