all the streets for so many months had at last thoroughly poisoned the
minds of the vulgar against the fallen statesman.

The great mass of the spectators had forced their way by daybreak into
the hall itself to hear the sentence, so that the Inner Courtyard had
remained comparatively empty.

At last, at half past nine o'clock, a shout arose, "There he comes! there
he comes!" and the populace flowed out from the hall of judgment into the
courtyard like a tidal wave.

In an instant the Binnenhof was filled with more than three thousand
spectators.

The old statesman, leaning on his staff, walked out upon the scaffold and
calmly surveyed the scene. Lifting his eyes to Heaven, he was heard to
murmur, "O God! what does man come to!" Then he said bitterly once more:
"This, then, is the reward of forty years' service to the State!"

La Motte, who attended him, said fervently: "It is no longer time to
think of this. Let us prepare your coming before God."

"Is there no cushion or stool to kneel upon?" said Barneveld, looking
around him.

The provost said he would send for one, but the old man knelt at once on
the bare planks. His servant, who waited upon him as calmly and
composedly as if he had been serving him at dinner, held him by the arm.
It was remarked that neither master nor man, true stoics and Hollanders
both, shed a single tear upon the scaffold.

La Motte prayed for a quarter of an hour, the Advocate remaining on his
knees.

He then rose and said to John Franken, "See that he does not come near
me," pointing to the executioner who stood in the background grasping his
long double-handed sword. Barneveld then rapidly unbuttoned his doublet
with his own hands and the valet helped him off with it. "Make haste!
make haste!" said his master.

The statesman then came forward and said in a loud, firm voice to the
people:

"Men, do not believe that I am a traitor to the country. I have ever
acted uprightly and loyally as a good patriot, and as such I shall die."

The crowd was perfectly silent.

He then took his cap from John Franken, drew it over his eyes, and went
forward towards the sand, saying:

"Christ shall be my guide. O Lord, my heavenly Father, receive my
spirit."

As he was about to kneel with his face to the south, the provost said:

"My lord will be pleased to move to the other side, not where the sun is
in his face."

He knelt accordingly with his face towards his own house. The servant