but, Amine,"
and Philip's lips trembled, "I cannot--merciful God! I am indeed
tried. Amine, I can stay no longer."

Amine's dark eyes were fixed upon her husband--she could not
speak--her features were convulsed--nature could no longer hold
up against her excess of feeling--she fell into his arms, and lay
motionless. Philip, about to impress a last kiss upon her pale lips,
perceived that she had fainted.

"She feels not now," said he, as he laid her upon the sofa; "it is
better that it should be so--too soon will she awake to misery."

Summoning to the assistance of his daughter Mynheer Poots, who was
in the adjoining room, Philip caught up his hat, imprinted one more
fervent kiss upon her forehead, burst from the house, and was out of
sight long before Amine had recovered from her swoon.

Chapter VIII

Before we follow Philip Vanderdecken in his venturous career, it
will be necessary to refresh the memory of our readers by a succinct
recapitulation of the circumstances that had directed the enterprise
of the Dutch towards the country of the East, which was now proving to
them a source of wealth which they considered as inexhaustible.

Let us begin at the beginning. Charles the Fifth, after having
possessed the major part of Europe, retired from the world, for
reasons best known to himself, and divided his kingdoms between
Ferdinand and Philip. To Ferdinand he gave Austria and its
dependencies; to Philip Spain; but to make the division more equal
and palatable to the latter, he threw the Low Countries, with the few
millions vegetating upon them, into the bargain. Having thus disposed
of his fellow-mortals much to his own satisfaction, he went into a
convent, reserving for himself a small income, twelve men, and a pony.
Whether he afterwards repented his hobby, or mounted his pony, is not
recorded; but this is certain--that in two years he died.

Philip thought (as many have thought before and since) that he had a
right to do what he pleased with his own. He therefore took away from
the Hollanders most of their liberties: to make amends, however, he
gave them the Inquisition; but the Dutch grumbled, and Philip, to stop
their grumbling, burnt a few of them. Upon which, the Dutch, who are
aquatic in their propensities, protested against a religion which was
much too warm for their constitutions. In short, heresy made great
progress; and the Duke of Alva was despatched with a large army, to
prove to the Ho